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You'll be notified when this gauge is rising more than 0.10 m/hr — a sign of rapidly increasing water levels.
You'll be notified when a new storm-overflow (sewage) discharge starts within ~3 km of this gauge, based on the water companies' near-real-time feeds.
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Current Level
0.319 m
▬ Steady
24h Max
0.321 m
24h Min
0.301 m
Typical Range
0.29 - 3.00
m
Highest Recorded
4.06 m
EA official record
A 5.01 reading (17 Mar 2023) sits in our unverified raw history and is not treated as the record
Current level is 8% of this
🚽Sewage overflows nearby
Recent Water Levels
🌍 floodradar.co.uk
1 day
EA forecast (official)
Prediction V2
Prediction Eris
Nimbus beta
Experimental model fusing soil moisture, river flow, groundwater and catchment
character. The shaded band is its 10–90% range, widened so that about 80% of recent outcomes fall inside it.
Under evaluation — not yet promoted, so treat as a second opinion.
River Flow
90 days
Daily mean discharge (m³/s) with the daily min–max band, from the EA Hydrology API. Flow is the volume of water passing the gauge — often a more direct flood signal than level.
Flow Data: Daily mean flow (m³/s) to 6 Oct (2 days behind — the EA publishes each day's mean a day or two after it ends; unchecked, provisional)via EA Hydrology
Storm overflows whose water reaches this gauge on the mapped river network, nearest first by distance along the river. The status is each water company's monitor: it says whether an overflow is discharging, not how much or what it contains.
189 storm overflows are traced upstream of this gauge, the nearest 220 m away along the river. 0 report discharging now, 176 report not discharging, and for 13 the monitor is offline or has not reported, so their status is not known.
Northumbrian Water · into Rowletch Burn 9river Team) · 3.2 km away in a straight line · its watercourse is not on the river map
6 spills · 39 hours in 2025
Not discharging now · last
35 more within 6 km whose connection is not known.
35 other overflows within 6 km are downstream of this gauge or on another branch of the river network, so they are not listed.
These are the water companies' monitor statuses; a spill does not by itself explain a change in the gauge level. River connections and distances are traced on OS Open Rivers (edition 2026-04), which leaves out many small channels. Explore the sewage map →
Warnings apply to a whole flood area, not necessarily this exact spot. Years before 2006 aren't covered by the EA's historic record.
See also the Chester-Le-Street flood history.
Flood areas linked to this gauge
Flood warnings and alerts are issued for whole areas. These are the 15 areas linked to this gauge, nearest first.
🌊 Fairly flashyResponds fairly quickly to rain, with moderate baseflow between events.
Your catchment is all the land that drains rainfall into the river above this gauge. Its character — how
steep, wet, wooded, urban or chalky that land is — decides how fast rain here turns into a rising river. A steep, bare or clay
catchment is “flashy” (rises and falls quickly, floods easily); a flat, chalk or well-wooded one is
slow and steady. The tiles below put numbers to that; the flow-duration curve reads left-to-right
from the river’s typical high flows (Q5) down to its low flows (Q95) — a steep curve means a flashy river.
The physical character of the land that drains to this gauge, and how it shapes its flood response — from the National River Flow Archive (UKCEH).
Baseflow Index
0.35
mixed response
Avg Annual Rainfall
921 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +4% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
3.1%
partly urbanised
Median Annual Flood
257 m³/s
QMED — typical yearly peak flow
Highest Daily Mean Flow
339 m³/s
7 Nov 2000 · daily mean, not the instantaneous peak
Flow-Duration Curve
Daily flow (m³/s) exceeded each % of the time — a steep curve is flashy, a flat one is steady. Q5 high · Q50 median · Q95 low.
Flat-V weir close to the tidal limit of the Wear. Flow regime influenced by reservoirs, abstractions and minewater discharges.
More detail
The catchment
Carboniferous Limestone and Millstone Grit, with over two thirds of the catchment overlain by superficial deposits (mainly Boulder Clay). Land use half grass pasture, moorland in Pennine headwaters, arable and built-up areas in lower valley. No known catchment changes.
The station
Flat V weir in 33m wide channel, close to tidal limit of Wear but this is not thought to affect the tailwater level.
How it measures flow
Non-standard flat V weir (1:2, 1:2 profile, 1:40 cross-slope), becomes non-modular at moderate flow and fully drowned at high flow. Spills onto wide left bank floodplain above 1m stage, floodplain gently rises for some distance before flattening off but largest peaks cover much of the recreation grounds between the river and the A167 dual carriageway. One peak flow rating applied across period of record, checked by gaugings from upstream bridge to 3.8m stage (330 cumecs)(within 15% of AMAX1) with fairly stable extrapolation. Flow is not affected by tidal limit downstream. Vertical tile eel pass installed in 2015.
Flow regime
Peaks of very large events are flattened. Reservoirs in catchment include Burnhope and Tunstall. In drought years low flows supported by Kielder transfer (flows maintained >2 cumecs). Abstraction for Wearside water supply is upstream of gauging station at Lumley. Also affected by minewater discharges (regime has changed since pit closures). Artificial influences created a distinctive diurnal variation, especially at low flows, until 2004.
The flow record
Gaugeboard survey in 2013 identified historic error between 06/2000 and 09/2013, levels in this period lowered by 36mm and flows re-processed. Full period of record peak flow data reviewed and released in August 2021 (WINFAP Files v10).
How this gauging station is built and how long it has measured (NRFA / UKCEH).
Gauge type
Gauging structure
Operating since
1977
Station datum
5.5 mAOD
Flow record
1977–2024 · 47 yrs · 100% complete
Peak-flow record
since 1977
Hydrometric area
24
Measured by
Environment Agency
Nearby Groundwater
Soil Moisture
Possible storm-overflow correlation
Frequently asked questions
Is the River Wear at Chester-Le-Street flooding today?
The current level is 0.32m, which is within the typical range of 0.29 to 3.00m. Flooding is unlikely at this level.
Is the river level rising or falling at Chester-Le-Street?
Based on the most recent readings, the level is currently steady. The chart above shows the last 12 hours of measurements by default (up to 7 days), updated roughly every 15 minutes.
What is a normal level for the River Wear at Chester-Le-Street?
The typical range at this station is 0.29m to 3.00m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 3.00m are higher than usually seen and may indicate a flood risk.
How often is this river level data updated?
Readings are supplied by the Environment Agency gauge. FloodRadar checks for updates roughly every 15 minutes; the timestamp above shows how recent the latest available reading is.
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📮 Flood risk by postcode near this gauge
Postcodes within 5 km with properties in the Environment Agency’s rivers-and-sea flood-risk bands:
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1 Oct 2019 View of drowned weir from left bank in high flow (2.49m stage)
2 Apr 2003 Weir from right bank
Weir and recorder hut
Weir looking u/s from L bank
Looking d/s from R bank
