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Water Level Rising Slightly
Up 0.02 m since 03:45, rising slightly
0.24

Vellake

West Okement River
Torridge and Hartland Streams catchment • Sourton • Devon • ID: 50141 • Level
(30m ago) • 4 readings/hr • 149 views

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Current Level
0.236 mASD
▲ Rising slightly
24h Max
0.236 mASD
24h Min
0.204 mASD
Typical Range
0.13 - 1.20
mASD
Highest Recorded
1.71 mASD
EA official record
1.73 in our data (since Oct 1968)
Current level is 14% of this
🚽 Sewage overflows nearby

Recent Water Levels

🌍 floodradar.co.uk
1 day

Recent Readings

Rising · +1.0 cm over 6h
09 Oct 13:30 ▬ steady 0.236 mASD
09 Oct 13:15 ▲ +0.1 cm 0.236 mASD
09 Oct 13:00 ▲ +0.2 cm 0.235 mASD
09 Oct 12:45 ▲ +0.1 cm 0.233 mASD
09 Oct 12:30 ▬ steady 0.232 mASD
09 Oct 12:00 ▬ steady 0.232 mASD
09 Oct 11:45 ▲ +0.2 cm 0.232 mASD
09 Oct 11:30 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.230 mASD
09 Oct 11:15 ▲ +0.1 cm 0.231 mASD
09 Oct 11:00 ▬ steady 0.230 mASD
09 Oct 10:45 ▲ +0.1 cm 0.230 mASD
09 Oct 10:30 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.229 mASD
09 Oct 10:15 ▲ +0.1 cm 0.230 mASD
09 Oct 10:00 ▲ +0.1 cm 0.229 mASD
09 Oct 09:45 ▬ steady 0.228 mASD
09 Oct 09:15 ▬ steady 0.228 mASD
09 Oct 09:00 ▲ +0.1 cm 0.228 mASD
09 Oct 08:45 ▬ steady 0.227 mASD
09 Oct 08:15 ▲ +0.1 cm 0.227 mASD
09 Oct 07:45 0.226 mASD

Station Details

  • Monitoring Station: Vellake
  • Watercourse: West Okement River
  • Nearest Town: Sourton
  • County: Devon
  • Nearest reservoir: Meldon (1.4 km) · 29.0% full (as of 4 Oct 2026)
  • Coordinates: 50°41'40"N 4°2'41"W (50.694535, -4.044740)
  • Open in: Google Maps · Apple Maps (opens your maps app)
  • Date Opened: 1 Jan 1967
  • Status: Active
  • Station Type: River level station
Technical details: references, datum, range, flow archive
  • Station Reference: 50141
  • RLOI id: 3105 (the EA's check-for-flooding station id)
  • EA Gauge ID: 50141-level-1-i-15_min-mASD
  • Parameter: Level
  • Unit: mASD
  • Typical rise rate: 7 cm/hr (p95 sustained over 90 days)
  • Typical data delay: ~22 min (measured reading→publication lag)
  • Tidal: No
  • Lock / structure: No
  • Catchment Area: Torridge and Hartland Streams
  • Typical Range: 0.131 – 1.200 mASD
  • Drainage Area: 13 km² upstream of this gauge
  • EA Cross-check: 0.24 mASD (EA at 9 Oct 13:15)
  • 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.

Connected downstream

Same river system, separate branch

Distances by river: OS Open Rivers. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database rights 2026.

💧 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. Those nearby are listed below.

Nearby, connection not known

Within 6 km in a straight line, but the river map cannot say whether their water passes this gauge.

💧
South West Water · into River Lew · 5.8 km away in a straight line · not connected to this gauge on the river map
74 spills · 1,259 hours in 2025
Not discharging now · last

5 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 →

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 1.20 m on about 1 day. This year so far: 0 days.

2026 0 days so far
2025 3 days
2024 2 days
2023 2 days patchy data
2022 1 day
2021 2 days
2020 1 day
2019 0 days
2018 1 day
2017 2 days patchy data

Counted from each day's highest reading. Days with missing or implausible readings are left out, so a year marked patchy may have run high more often than shown.

Flood history near this gauge

Official Environment Agency warnings issued since 2017 for the 2 flood areas linked to this gauge (nearest 6.1 km away).

1flood warning 0flood alerts

Most recent flood warning: 30 Jul 2017 — River Okement (East) at Okehampton

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 Sourton flood history.

Flood areas linked to this gauge

Flood warnings and alerts are issued for whole areas. These are the 2 areas linked to this gauge, nearest first.

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
0.35
flashy — rain runs off fast
Avg Annual Rainfall
2,193 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +0% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
0.0%
largely rural
Highest Daily Mean Flow
16.50 m³/s
27 Dec 1979 · daily mean, not the instantaneous peak
Flow-Duration Curve
mean 0.7122.760.3290.0865% (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)
Grassland 13%Heath/scrub 87%
Grassland 19% → 13% since 1990

Flow affected by: public water supply.

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

Rectangular thin plate weir at remote Dartmoor site.

More detail

The catchment

Catchment drains northwards from the highest area of Dartmoor, wholly on granite. Channel is wide, meandering and rocky. Moorland catchment. No major catchment changes.

The station

Rectangular thin plate weir flanked by compound broad-crested weirs under a bridge. Crest length approx. 7.5m. Removed from peak flows dataset in February 2018 (WINFAP Files v6).

How it measures flow

Bankfull level at 1.1m; large floods bypass station. One rating applied across period of record. Lack of suitable metering sites means check gauging is difficult and rating cannot be validated.

Flow regime

Low flows dominated by Prewley Water Treatment Works' abstraction upstream.

The flow record

Flows above 0.6 cumecs are above the limit of the rating and should be treated with caution.

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
Gauging structure
Operating since
1975
Station datum
286.4 mAOD
Flow record
1974–2024 · 50 yrs · 99% complete
Hydrometric area
50
Measured by
Environment Agency

Frequently asked questions

Is the West Okement River at Vellake flooding today?

The current level is 0.24m, which is within the typical range of 0.13 to 1.20m. Flooding is unlikely at this level.

Is the river level rising or falling at Vellake?

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 West Okement River at Vellake?

The typical range at this station is 0.13m to 1.20m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 1.20m 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:

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, recorded floods, warning history, river behaviour and nearby storm overflows. £19 one-off. Learn more →