← Back
0.28

Gunnislake

Tamar
Tamar catchment • Gunnislake • Devon • ID: 47117 • Level
(28m ago) • 2 readings/hr • 123 views

Set water level alerts

Get notified about Gunnislake — 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
0.278 m
▬ Steady
24h Max
0.291 m
24h Min
0.278 m
Typical Range
0.30 - 3.00
m
Highest Recorded
4.47 m
EA official record
3.98 in our data (since Jun 1956)
Current level is 6% of this
🚽 Sewage overflows nearby

Recent Water Levels

🌍 floodradar.co.uk
1 day

Recent Readings

Falling · -0.4 cm over 10h
23 Aug 23:00 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.278 m
23 Aug 22:30 ▲ +0.1 cm 0.279 m
23 Aug 21:30 ▬ steady 0.278 m
23 Aug 21:00 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.278 m
23 Aug 20:30 ▬ steady 0.279 m
23 Aug 20:00 ▬ steady 0.279 m
23 Aug 19:30 ▬ steady 0.279 m
23 Aug 19:00 ▬ steady 0.279 m
23 Aug 18:30 ▬ steady 0.279 m
23 Aug 18:00 ▬ steady 0.279 m
23 Aug 17:30 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.279 m
23 Aug 17:00 ▬ steady 0.280 m
23 Aug 16:30 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.280 m
23 Aug 16:00 ▲ +0.1 cm 0.281 m
23 Aug 15:30 ▬ steady 0.280 m
23 Aug 15:00 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.280 m
23 Aug 14:30 ▬ steady 0.281 m
23 Aug 14:00 ▬ steady 0.282 m
23 Aug 13:30 ▬ steady 0.282 m
23 Aug 13:00 0.282 m

Rainfall & Weather

Loading rainfall and weather data...

Flood history near this gauge

Official Environment Agency warnings issued since 2006 for the 6 flood areas linked to this gauge (nearest 1.5 km away).

28flood warnings 142flood alerts

Most recent flood warning: 27 Jan 2026River Tamar from Greystone Bridge to Cotehele excluding Calstock

Year by year
YearWarningsAlerts
2026 2 2
2025 2 11
2024 2 6
2023 0 5
2022 0 1
2021 4 6
2020 2 12
2019 0 10
2018 0 4
2017 0 1
2016 4 7
2015 0 10
2014 1 13
2013 2 13
2012 4 22
2011 1 11
2010 0 2
2009 1 2
2008 2 4
2006 1 0

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 Gunnislake flood history.

Nearby Stations

Loading nearby stations...

Station Details

  • Monitoring Station: Gunnislake
  • Watercourse: River Tamar
  • Nearest Town: Gunnislake
  • County: Devon
  • Nearest reservoir: Roadford (17.5 km) · 61.0% full (as of 16 Aug 2026)
  • Coordinates: 50°31'53"N 4°13'19"W (50.531278, -4.221847)
  • Open in: Google Maps · Apple Maps (opens your maps app)
  • Date Opened: 26 Jun 1956
  • Status: Active
  • Station Type: River level station
  • Station Reference: 47117
  • EA Gauge ID: 47117-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: Tamar
  • Typical Range: 0.297 – 3.000 m
  • Drainage Area: 917 km² upstream of this gauge
  • Flow Data: Available (m³/s) via EA Hydrology
  • EA Cross-check: 0.28 m (EA at 23 Aug 22:30)
  • 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.

Catchment Character

🌊 Fairly flashy Responds 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
1,319 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +6% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
0.5%
largely rural
Median Annual Flood
263 m³/s
QMED — typical yearly peak flow
Highest Recorded Flow
484 m³/s
27 Dec 1979
Flow-Duration Curve
mean 23.0782.4611.902.285% (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 11%Grassland 77%Arable 8%Heath/scrub 1%Urban 2%Other 1%
Grassland 81% → 77% since 1990

Flow affected by: surface-water abstraction, reservoir influence, public water supply, effluent returns, 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

Velocity area station with a wide shallow channel and rocky bed.

More detail

The catchment

A fairly responsive rural catchment of moderate relief, draining very disturbed Lower Carboniferous slates, shales, grits and volcanics. Significant alluvial flats in middle reaches, Devonian slates lower down. Land use is a range of agriculture, grazing and forestry. Construction of Roadford Reservoir on the River Wolf in 1988.

The station

Velocity area station with a wide, shallow channel and rocky bed. Cableway span is 46.9m. New cableway in 1999. Informal Flat V low flow level bed control installed in 1989. Access problem at high flows.

How it measures flow

Low flow check gaugings undertaken at narrower site. Shifts in rating pre-1989 due to changes in natural bed control. Good range of gaugings, reliable rating especially since 1991. Construction of Roadford Reservoir on the River Wolf may have significant effect on low flows from 1989. Multiple peak flow ratings applied across period of record. Ratings fit well to corresponding gaugings.

Flow regime

Roadford Reservoir from 1989 may have significant effect at low flows. Abstraction for public water supply and industrial/agricultural uses. Some effluent returns. Regulation from surface water and/or groundwater.

The flow record

Full period of record peak flow data reviewed and released in September 2019 (WINFAP Files v8) and in August 2024 (WINFAP Files v13).

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
Velocity–area
Operating since
1956
Station datum
8.2 mAOD
Flow record
1956–2024 · 68 yrs · 100% complete
Peak-flow record
since 1956
Hydrometric area
47
Measured by
Environment Agency

Frequently asked questions

Is the River Tamar at Gunnislake flooding today?

The current level is 0.28m, which is below the typical range. Flooding is very unlikely at this level.

Is the river level rising or falling at Gunnislake?

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 Tamar at Gunnislake?

The typical range at this station is 0.30m 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 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 →