← Back
0.18

Stanhope

Wear
Wear catchment • Stanhope • County Durham • ID: 024003 • Level
(35m ago) • 3 readings/hr • 138 views

Set water level alerts

Get notified about Stanhope — tick as many as you like, they all share the notify settings below.

Unusual rise FloodRadar+Top 1% rise rate for this gauge.
Drag the line on the chart, or type a value: m
Quick pick:

Each one is saved as its own alert — pause or remove them individually any time.

Not an emergency service — if in danger call 999. Alerts rely on EA/SEPA data and are best-efforts. Terms

Current Level
0.184 m
▬ Steady
24h Max
0.189 m
24h Min
0.184 m
Typical Range
0.10 - 2.15
m
Highest Recorded
3.71 m
EA official record
3.54 in our data (since Jan 1961)
Current level is 5% of this
🚽 Sewage overflows nearby

Recent Water Levels

🌍 floodradar.co.uk
1 day

Recent Readings

Steady over 6h
23 Aug 23:15 ▬ steady 0.184 m
23 Aug 23:00 ▬ steady 0.184 m
23 Aug 22:45 ▬ steady 0.184 m
23 Aug 21:30 ▬ steady 0.184 m
23 Aug 21:15 ▬ steady 0.184 m
23 Aug 21:00 ▬ steady 0.184 m
23 Aug 20:45 ▬ steady 0.184 m
23 Aug 20:30 ▬ steady 0.184 m
23 Aug 20:15 ▬ steady 0.184 m
23 Aug 20:00 ▬ steady 0.184 m
23 Aug 19:45 ▬ steady 0.184 m
23 Aug 19:30 ▬ steady 0.184 m
23 Aug 19:15 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.184 m
23 Aug 19:00 ▬ steady 0.185 m
23 Aug 18:45 ▬ steady 0.185 m
23 Aug 18:30 ▬ steady 0.185 m
23 Aug 18:15 ▬ steady 0.185 m
23 Aug 18:00 ▲ +0.1 cm 0.185 m
23 Aug 17:45 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.184 m
23 Aug 17:30 0.185 m

Rainfall & Weather

Loading rainfall and weather data...

Flood history near this gauge

Official Environment Agency warnings issued since 2011 for the 5 flood areas linked to this gauge (nearest 0.8 km away).

3flood warnings 24flood alerts

Most recent flood warning: 5 Dec 2015River Wear at Stanhope

Year by year
YearWarningsAlerts
2025 0 1
2023 0 3
2022 0 1
2021 0 1
2020 0 2
2019 0 1
2018 0 1
2017 0 2
2015 3 4
2013 0 6
2012 0 1
2011 0 1

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 Stanhope flood history.

Nearby Stations

Loading nearby stations...

Station Details

  • Monitoring Station: Stanhope
  • Watercourse: River Wear
  • Nearest Town: Stanhope
  • County: County Durham
  • Nearest reservoir: Honey Hill - Waskerley (6.4 km) · 92.3% full (as of 28 Dec 2025)
  • Coordinates: 54°44'45"N 2°1'35"W (54.745941, -2.026369)
  • Open in: Google Maps · Apple Maps (opens your maps app)
  • Date Opened: 1 Jan 1958
  • Status: Active
  • Station Type: River level station
  • Station Reference: 024003
  • EA Gauge ID: 024003-level-stage-i-15_min-m
  • Parameter: Level
  • Unit: m
  • Typical rise rate: 1 cm/hr (p95 sustained over 90 days)
  • Typical data delay: ~22 min (measured reading→publication lag)
  • Tidal: No
  • Lock / structure: No
  • Catchment Area: Wear
  • Typical Range: 0.101 – 2.150 m
  • Drainage Area: 172 km² upstream of this gauge
  • Flow Data: Available (m³/s) via EA Hydrology
  • EA Cross-check: 0.18 m (EA at 23 Aug 23:15)
  • Flow Archive: National River Flow Archive ↗

Geographic coordinates may reflect the access point for the gauge, and not the precise location in the watercourse that it is taking readings from.

Catchment Character

🌊 Flashy Rain runs off fast — levels rise and fall sharply, often within hours of heavy rain.

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
0.30
flashy — rain runs off fast
Avg Annual Rainfall
1,327 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +1% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
0.2%
largely rural
Median Annual Flood
126 m³/s
QMED — typical yearly peak flow
Highest Recorded Flow
139 m³/s
5 Dec 2015
Flow-Duration Curve
mean 3.9915.851.750.5085% (high)% of days exceeded95% (low)
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.
Land Cover (2023)
Woodland 2%Grassland 39%Heath/scrub 57%Other 1%
Heath/scrub 31% → 57% since 1990

Flow affected by: surface-water abstraction, effluent returns.

Photos

Gauging-station photographs from the National River Flow Archive (UKCEH).

Photos © NRFA / UKCEH & the measuring authority — shown at web resolution. Full gallery on the NRFA ↗

About this gauge

Compound Crump profile weir gauging the upper Wear catchment. Flow regime influenced by Burnhope reservoir.

More detail

The catchment

Steep Pennine catchment. Mainly Lower Carboniferous Limestone, overlain by peat in headwaters and boulder clay and alluvium in valley. Some forestry but around three quarters grass pasture and moorland and some arable farming. No known catchment changes.

The station

Compound Crump profile weir located in a steep rocky section, overall width 19.1m, central low crest width 7.6m, Larinier fish pass completed August 2018. Wing walls raised in 1967. A temporary cableway was used d/s of the weir in late 1960s-early 1970s.

How it measures flow

Weir suffers periodic upstream gravel accumulation, formerly limited by a gravel trap, now ineffective. Flows contained on left bank up to 3.1m until July 2007 when the left wing wall was repaired and raised. Instruments originally on right bank but poor for measuring low flows due to sand and gravel deposition. Instruments moved to left bank from mid-1990s but stilling well thought to suffer from drawdown at high stages >1.5m. A second instrument was reinstated on the right bank in 1998 to improve measurement at high flow but left bank gauge remained the primary data until Feb 2002, when reverted fully to the right bank. In July 2007 the inlet pipe was extended by 2m to improve measurement at low levels due to the accumulation of gravel around the pipe. Two peak flows ratings applied across period of record, pre- and post- fish pass construction (2018), refined using hydraulic modelling. Model gives confidence in rating performing well at high flows. Flood Studies Report grade A1.

Flow regime

Very flashy response and extremely peaked flows. Burnhope reservoir (catchment area 19 sq.km) has noticeable effect; net export of water.

The flow record

Bypassing on the left bank affected flow events in 1995, 1999 and 2005. Flow of January 2005 event may be underestimated due to problems with gravel build up blocking the inlet pipe to the stilling well affecting level measurement. Weir repair and fish pass works commenced September 2017 resulting in inaccurate flow data until August 2018. Various periods of suspect flows throughout the record as a result of measurement problems due to gravel deposition and drawdown at high flows. Full period of record peak flow data reviewed and released in September 2019 (WINFAP Files v8).

Descriptions from the National River Flow Archive (UKCEH). NRFA station record ↗

Gauge Details

How this gauging station is built and how long it has measured (NRFA / UKCEH).

Gauge type
Gauging structure
Operating since
1958
Station datum
202.0 mAOD
Flow record
1958–2024 · 66 yrs · 99% complete
Peak-flow record
since 1958
Hydrometric area
24
Measured by
Environment Agency

Frequently asked questions

Is the River Wear at Stanhope flooding today?

The current level is 0.18m, which is within the typical range of 0.10 to 2.15m. Flooding is unlikely at this level.

Is the river level rising or falling at Stanhope?

Based on the most recent readings, the level is currently steady. The chart above shows the last 7 days of measurements, updated roughly every 15 minutes.

What is a normal level for the River Wear at Stanhope?

The typical range at this station is 0.10m to 2.15m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 2.15m are higher than usually seen and may indicate a flood risk.

How often is this river level data updated?

Readings are taken by the Environment Agency gauge roughly every 15 minutes and FloodRadar refreshes its data continuously, so the level shown is normally less than an hour old.

Embed this gauge on your website

Free live river-level widget — ideal for parish councils, angling clubs and local sites. Updates automatically.

Preview

📮 Flood risk by postcode near this gauge

Postcodes within 5 km with properties in the Environment Agency’s rivers-and-sea flood-risk bands:

Check any UK postcode’s flood risk →

🏠 Buying or renting around here? Get the Property Flood-Risk Report for any English postcode — official risk band, floods since 1946, warning history, river behaviour and nearby storm overflows. £19 one-off. Learn more →