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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.
Get notified when recent rainfall near this gauge crosses its learnt rise trigger — an early "watch"
signal, typically hours before a rise. Experimental; not an official flood warning.
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Current Level
0.177 m
▬ Steady
24h Max
0.179 m
24h Min
0.169 m
Typical Range
0.16 - 1.60
m
Highest Recorded
2.55 m
EA official record
2.55 in our data (since Jun 1971)
Current level is 7% 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.
CARNWOOD (E45744) — flow at this site
7 days
A separate gauge 14.1 m from this one at the same site, shown here for context.
Its readings are its own and are never merged with this page's.
Flow Data: Daily mean flow (m³/s) to 7 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.
7 storm overflows are traced upstream of this gauge, the nearest 6.3 km away along the river. 0 report discharging now, 5 report not discharging, and for 2 the monitor is offline or has not reported, so their status is not known.
South West Water · into River Plym (Estuarine) · 5.0 km away in a straight line · discharges to the sea, an estuary or tidal water
0 spills · 0 hours in 2025
Not discharging now · last
16 more within 6 km whose connection is not known.
6 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 Bickleigh flood history.
Flood areas linked to this gauge
Flood warnings and alerts are issued for whole areas. These are the 11 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
0.48
mixed response
Avg Annual Rainfall
1,797 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +13% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
0.7%
largely rural
Median Annual Flood
47.87 m³/s
QMED — typical yearly peak flow
Highest Daily Mean Flow
56.50 m³/s
27 Dec 1979 · 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.
The headwaters of Plym and Meavy rise on W Dartmoor granite downstream of Burrator Reservoir and pass SW onto Upper Devonian slates. Insignificant areas of alluvium and river gravel exist, most particularly between the gauging station and the Meavy-Plym confluence. Moorland catchment with forestry. No major changes apart from afforestation.
The station
Compound crump weir built in 1971. Centre crest of 3.5m and 2 flank crests of 4.5m. Total crest width 12.5m.
How it measures flow
Modular to around 1.6m, drowning occurs at high flows. One peak flow rating across period of record. Theoretical rating does not apply beyond top of wingwalls are they are very rarely overtopped and by very little. Only bypassed on largest floods of 1979 and 2000. Tailwater recorder added 09/2007. At one time received diversions from the Dart via the Devonport Leat (~0.21 cumec), but this has now ceased. Flows from 2000 (reopening) onward reprocessed in 2007 following datum correction. Rating appears to underestimate flows beyond 0.8m. An Acoustic Doppler device installed in 09/2014 to confirm flows above 0.8m and identify the point and extent of drowning.
Flow regime
Burrator Reservoir influences flows. The headwaters of Plym and Meavy rise on W Dartmoor granite and pass SW onto Upper Devonian slates. Insignificant areas of alluvium and river gravel exist, particularly between gauging station and Meavy-Plym confluence. Land use is moorland, forestry.
The flow record
Station closed between 01/10/1981-17/04/2000. 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 Plym at Carnwood flooding today?
The current level is 0.18m, which is within the typical range of 0.16 to 1.60m. Flooding is unlikely at this level.
Is the river level rising or falling at Carnwood?
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 Plym at Carnwood?
The typical range at this station is 0.16m 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:
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29 Jul 2009 Carnwood high flow on 29 July 2009 @ 1710GMT looking US to weir. SG = 1.064m, Q = 20.1 cumecs
29 Jul 2009 High flow looking downstream to weir, stage = 1.064m
Looking upstream towards the weir