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⤴Unusual rise — FloodRadar+Top 1% rise rate for this gauge.
Height for "Above a height"
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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.
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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
Current Level
0.490 mASD
▬ Steady
24h Max
0.497 mASD
24h Min
0.487 mASD
Typical Range
0.35 - 2.30
mASD
Highest Recorded
4.18 mASD
EA official record
4.18 in our data (since Nov 1969)
Current level is 12% 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.
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
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.
6 storm overflows are traced upstream of this gauge, the nearest 1.1 km away along the river. 0 report discharging now, 6 report not discharging.
South West Water · into River Tamar (S) · 5.4 km away in a straight line · no mapped watercourse close enough to be sure
4 spills · 1 hours in 2025
Not discharging now · last
4 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 Lifton flood history.
Flood areas linked to this gauge
Flood warnings and alerts are issued for whole areas. These are the 7 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
0.49
mixed response
Avg Annual Rainfall
1,378 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +6% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
0.2%
largely rural
Median Annual Flood
74.14 m³/s
QMED — typical yearly peak flow
Highest Daily Mean Flow
128 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.
Shallow rectangular concrete flume installed in 1968 to replace previous velocity-area section.
More detail
The catchment
Moderate to high relief catchment draining Carboniferous Culm Measures (shales and sandstones). Land-use is wholly rural: moorland headwaters, forestry in main valleys, rough grazing, low-grade agriculture. Roadford Reservoir, completed in 1989, with a catchment area of 31.8km2, affects 14.5% of the catchment. Data presented is for the post-reservoir period. The post-reservoir FARL should be used and has been set to be the same value as post-reservoir FARL2015 because post-reservoir cannot be calculated from the original FARL water layer. Pre-reservoir FARL and FARL2015 is 0.996 and 0.99 respectively.
The station
Originally a velocity area station, superseded in 1968 by a shallow, rectangular, concrete flume to overcome low-flow measurement problems. Flume has side and bed contractions, throat 3.5m wide, 0.38 m deep, and is flanked by broad crested weirs in 7.9 m wide channel. Wooden structure added to central channel to aid fish movement. Gentle approach bend. Cableway 5 m upstream of present position prior to 1977. Flood Studies Report grade C.
How it measures flow
Largest floods may exceed bankfull and bypass station. Peak flows of 1979 and 2000 thought to have been contained. Upper limb extended to out-of-bank flows using modelling. Flume installation in 10/1968 necessitated a rating change. Latest rating based on all gaugings and hydraulic modelled upper limb for out of bank flows. Reviewed and re-rated in 2019. Segment 1 to top of flume, segment 2 to bankfull and segment 3 OOB modelled flow. High flow gaugings are difficult so an Acoustic Doppler acts as a high flow gauging tool to assist flow estimation.
Flow regime
Flows significantly affected by operation of Roadford Reservoir (post-1988). Runoff influenced by groundwater abstraction/recharge and increased by effluent returns.
The flow record
Station closed 1981-88. Since 1988, 15% of the catchment drains through Roadford Reservoir, though runoff from Dartmoor to the east may be more significant. New medium and high daily flow rating developed in 2007 including high flow gaugings and applied to flows back to 1975. Pre-reservoir flows are rejected. Full period of record peak flow data reviewed and released in September 2020 (WINFAP Files v9).
How this gauging station is built and how long it has measured (NRFA / UKCEH).
Gauge type
Gauging structure
Operating since
1975
Station datum
47.8 mAOD
Flow record
1963–2024 · 61 yrs · 88% complete
Peak-flow record
since 1962
Hydrometric area
47
Measured by
Environment Agency
Nearby Groundwater
Soil Moisture
Possible storm-overflow correlation
Rain upstream
This gauge has no rain model of its own, but it usually follows Tideford: when about 10mm of rain falls near Tideford in 6h, this gauge usually starts rising about 75 minutes later.
Timing, not cause. Gauges can move together simply because the same rain fell on both.
Frequently asked questions
Is the River Lyd at Lifton Park flooding today?
The current level is 0.49m, which is within the typical range of 0.35 to 2.30m. Flooding is unlikely at this level.
Is the river level rising or falling at Lifton Park?
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 Lyd at Lifton Park?
The typical range at this station is 0.35m to 2.30m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 2.30m 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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7 Aug 2015 View across cableway section
5 Jul 2012
5 Jul 2012
5 Jul 2012
5 Jul 2012 Upstream view from gauging station
5 Jul 2012 Downstream from gauging station
