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⤴Unusual rise — FloodRadar+Top 1% rise rate for this gauge.
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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.
Beta. You'll be notified when a flood wave detected at an upstream gauge is forecast to reach this station, with an estimated arrival time. Accuracy improves as we verify more waves.
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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Not an emergency service — if in danger call 999. Alerts rely on
EA/SEPA/NRW data and are best-efforts. Terms
High river levels today may lead to flooding.
Flooding is possible from the evening of Saturday 24 October .
Storm Boelo is forecast to bring heavy rain and strong winds across Cumbria today, Saturday 24th October and overnight into tomorrow. River levels are likely to rise during the course of today and this evening with the potential for some flooding of low lying land. Locations most affected will be low lying land and roads near rivers Caldew and Petteril from the Lakeland Fells to Carlisle including Greystoke, Newton Reigny, Plumpton, Stockdalewath, Sebergham and Denton Holme in Carlisle.
We are closely monitoring the situation .
Take care and avoid walking, cycling or driving through flood water.
This message will be updated by 9:00AM on Sunday 25 October or as the situation changes.
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 23 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.
4 storm overflows are traced upstream of this gauge, the nearest 2.9 km away along the river. 3 report discharging now, 1 reports not discharging.
United Utilities · into The River Petteril · 5.7 km away in a straight line · no mapped watercourse close enough to be sure
32 spills · 83 hours in 2025
Discharging nowsince
18 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. Sewage & storm overflows →
In a typical year this gauge reaches its typical high of 1.60 m
on about 7 days.
This year so far: 2 days.
20262 days so far
20256 days, 3 of them high · 3 high
20247 days, 4 of them high · 4 high
20237 days, 3 of them high · 3 high
20221 day, 1 of them high · 1 high
202111 days, 8 of them high · 8 high
202011 days, 6 of them high · 6 high
20198 days, 6 of them high · 6 high
20182 days, 2 of them high · 2 high
20176 days, 3 of them high · 3 high
Counted from each day's highest reading. Days with missing or implausible readings are left out.
The darker part is days above 2.05 m, the level this gauge tops only a few days a year.
Flood history near this gauge
Official Environment Agency warnings issued since 2006 for the 10 flood
areas linked to this gauge (nearest 0.4 km away).
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 Cummersdale flood history.
Flood areas linked to this gauge
Flood warnings and alerts are issued for whole areas. These are the 10 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
0.42
mixed response
Avg Annual Rainfall
1,327 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +2% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
0.2%
largely rural
Median Annual Flood
159 m³/s
QMED — typical yearly peak flow
Highest Daily Mean Flow
223 m³/s
5 Dec 2015 · 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.
Non-standard broad crested shallow V weir gauging a rural catchment. Steep catchment produces very responsive flow regime. Previously station number 76809.
More detail
The catchment
Rural catchment. Headwaters in Carboniferous Limestone of Pennines to east, impervious Lower Palaeozoics of Lake District Massif to west; moorland. Extensive boulder clay covered Permo-Triassic sandstone in Vale of Eden. Very steep catchment, producing responsive hydrograph. No significant catchment changes.
The station
Non-standard broad crested shallow V weir, 17m wide. Opened September 1997, replacing Holm Hill (76009) and Holm Head stations.
How it measures flow
High flows measured in channel using a cableway. One peak flow rating applied across period of record with a modelled top-end. Upper limb developed by hydraulic modelling. Out of bank flow on right bank, and also some out of bank flow on left bank in extreme events.
Flow regime
Very responsive catchment. No known artificial influences.
The flow record
Full period of record peak flow data reviewed and released in September 2020 (WINFAP Files v9).
Timing, not cause. Gauges can move together simply because the same rain fell on both.
Frequently asked questions
Is the River Caldew at Cummersdale flooding today?
The current level is 1.12m, which is within the typical range of 0.28 to 1.60m. Flooding is unlikely at this level.
Is the river level rising or falling at Cummersdale?
Based on the most recent readings, the level is currently rising. 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 Caldew at Cummersdale?
The typical range at this station is 0.28m to 1.60m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 1.60m 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: