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Water Level Rising Slightly
Up 0.03 m since 04:00, rising slightly
1.14

Galesyke

Irt
Derwent West Cumbria and Duddon catchment • Wasdale • Cumberland • ID: 743008 • Level
(36m ago) • 4 readings/hr • 142 views

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Current Level
1.140 m
▲ Rising slightly (-2cm/hr)
24h Max
1.149 m
24h Min
1.041 m
Typical Range
0.25 - 0.85
m
Highest Recorded
2.01 m
EA official record
2.00 in our data (since Dec 1975)
Current level is 57% of this
🚽 Sewage overflows nearby

Recent Water Levels

🌍 floodradar.co.uk
12 hours

Recent Readings

Rising · +1 cm over 5h
10 Oct 13:00 ▼ -0.6 cm 1.140 m
10 Oct 12:45 ▼ -0.3 cm 1.146 m
10 Oct 12:30 ▲ +0.7 cm 1.149 m
10 Oct 12:15 ▬ steady 1.142 m
10 Oct 12:00 ▬ steady 1.142 m
10 Oct 11:45 ▬ steady 1.142 m
10 Oct 11:30 ▼ -0.1 cm 1.142 m
10 Oct 11:15 ▲ +0.4 cm 1.143 m
10 Oct 11:00 ▼ -0.7 cm 1.139 m
10 Oct 10:45 ▲ +1 cm 1.146 m
10 Oct 10:30 ▼ -0.3 cm 1.134 m
10 Oct 10:15 ▲ +0.7 cm 1.137 m
10 Oct 10:00 ▼ -0.3 cm 1.130 m
10 Oct 09:45 ▼ -0.7 cm 1.133 m
10 Oct 09:30 ▲ +1 cm 1.140 m
10 Oct 09:15 ▬ steady 1.127 m
10 Oct 09:00 ▬ steady 1.128 m
10 Oct 08:45 ▬ steady 1.128 m
10 Oct 08:30 ▼ -0.1 cm 1.128 m
10 Oct 08:15 1.129 m

Station Details

  • Monitoring Station: Galesyke
  • Watercourse: River Irt
  • Nearest Town: Wasdale
  • County: Cumberland
  • Coordinates: 54°25'21"N 3°20'3"W (54.422403, -3.334074)
  • Open in: Google Maps · Apple Maps (opens your maps app)
  • Date Opened: 1 Dec 1975
  • Status: Active
  • Station Type: River level station
Technical details: references, datum, range, flow archive
  • Station Reference: 743008
  • RLOI id: 5182 (the EA's check-for-flooding station id)
  • EA Gauge ID: 743008-level-stage-i-15_min-m
  • Parameter: Level
  • Unit: m
  • Typical rise rate: 2 cm/hr (p95 sustained over 90 days)
  • Typical data delay: ~22 min (measured reading→publication lag)
  • Tidal: No
  • Lock / structure: No
  • Catchment Area: Derwent West Cumbria and Duddon
  • Typical Range: 0.250 – 0.850 m
  • Drainage Area: 44 km² upstream of this gauge
  • Flow Data: Daily mean flow (m³/s) to 8 Oct (2 days behind — the EA publishes each day's mean a day or two after it ends; unchecked, provisional) via EA Hydrology
  • EA Cross-check: 1.15 m (EA at 10 Oct 12:30)
  • 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.

Nearby Stations

Gauges connected to this river, and others nearby. A distance “by river” follows the river on the map; any other is in a straight line.

Same river system, separate branch

Nearby

💧 Storm overflows upstream of this gauge

None of the storm overflows FloodRadar holds is traced upstream of this gauge on the mapped river network. That is not the same as none: the map leaves out many small streams and culverts, so an overflow it cannot place may still drain here, and not every company publishes every overflow.

1 other overflow within 6 km is downstream of this gauge or on another branch of the river network, so it is 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 →

Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database rights 2026.

Rainfall & Weather

Loading rainfall and weather data...

How often this river runs high

In a typical year this gauge reaches its typical high of 0.85 m on about 32 days. This year so far: 17 days.

2026 17 days, 3 of them high · 3 high so far
2025 36 days, 8 of them high · 8 high
2024 37 days, 8 of them high · 8 high
2023 51 days, 7 of them high · 7 high
2022 22 days, 2 of them high · 2 high
2021 24 days, 9 of them high · 9 high
2020 51 days, 8 of them high · 8 high
2019 22 days, 2 of them high · 2 high
2018 13 days, 1 of them high · 1 high
2017 31 days, 8 of them high · 8 high

Counted from each day's highest reading. Days with missing or implausible readings are left out. The darker part is days above 1.16 m, the level this gauge tops only a few days a year.

Catchment Character

🌊 Steep & flashy Steep catchment sheds rain quickly — expect fast, sharp rises after 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
0.37
mixed response
Avg Annual Rainfall
2,954 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +8% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
0.0%
largely rural
Median Annual Flood
22.34 m³/s
QMED — typical yearly peak flow
Highest Daily Mean Flow
47.09 m³/s
2 Oct 1968 · daily mean, not the instantaneous peak
Flow-Duration Curve
mean 3.519.702.490.4515% (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 1%Grassland 87%Arable 3%Heath/scrub 1%Other 7%
Heath/scrub 13% → 1% since 1990

Flow affected by: surface-water abstraction, public water supply, industrial / agricultural abstraction.

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

Flat V weir replacing earlier velocity area station. Station gauges a very wet catchment with steep headwaters and flow regime affected by Wast Water, 1km upstream.

More detail

The catchment

Catchment subject to heavy rainfall, with rapid runoff in short, steep rivers. Entirely impervious Orodovician Borrowdale Volcanics and Andesitic Lavas rocks with Drift cover along river valley. Landuse mainly sheep farming on rough pasture, with heath and moorland. No known catchment changes.

The station

Station opened December 1967 on a natural channel with a plastic pipe, then gabion as bed control. The control was modified in September 1968. Flat V weir constructed 20m upstream in September 1990. The weir was refurbished in July and August 2006; the datum plate was reset on 19/04/2007 and levels from the date of the refurbishment were adjusted by the change.

How it measures flow

Flows contained to 1.3m, significant out of bank flow thereafter. Flows above bankfull are extremely suspect as there is significant unmeasured out of bank flow. Cableway until 2002. Multiple peak flow ratings applied across period of record, the most recent is valid from April 2007. Ratings show good fit to corresponding gaugings. Flood Studies Report grade B.

Flow regime

Site is 1km downstream of Wast Water which is important for public water supply and major industrial purposes; greatly affects low flows and subdues hydrograph variation.

The flow record

No data during weir construction May-Sep 1990. No data 04/07/2006 - 15/08/2006 due to weir repairs. High daily mean flows pre-Oct 1978 are often higher than peak flows and uncertain; peak flows rejected pre-Oct 1978 pending review of the early pre-digital rating history. Full period of record peak flow data reviewed and released in September 2023 (WINFAP Files v12).

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
Flat-V weir
Operating since
1967
Station datum
54.2 mAOD
Flow record
1967–2024 · 57 yrs · 100% complete
Peak-flow record
since 1967
Hydrometric area
74
Measured by
Environment Agency

Frequently asked questions

Is the River Irt at Galesyke flooding today?

The current level is 1.14m, which is ABOVE the typical high of 0.85m. Flooding is possible — check current flood warnings for this area.

Is the river level rising or falling at Galesyke?

Based on the most recent readings, the level is currently rising slightly. 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 Irt at Galesyke?

The typical range at this station is 0.25m to 0.85m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 0.85m 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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