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0.09

Litton Cheney

Litton Cheney Stream
West Dorset Streams catchment • Litton Cheney • Dorset • ID: 44112 • Level
Looking for Litton Cheney? See flooding in Litton Cheney →
(51m ago) • 1 reading/hr • 140 views

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Current Level
0.091 m
▬ Steady
24h Max
0.101 m
24h Min
0.089 m
Typical Range
0.09 - 0.50
m
Highest Recorded
0.51 m
EA official record
A 0.79 reading (12 Dec 2000) sits in our unverified raw history and is not treated as the record
Current level is 18% of this
🚽 Sewage overflows nearby

Recent Water Levels

🌍 floodradar.co.uk
1 day

Recent Readings

Steady over 10h
08 Oct 10:00 ▲ +0.1 cm 0.091 m
08 Oct 09:00 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.090 m
08 Oct 08:00 ▲ +0.1 cm 0.091 m
08 Oct 07:00 ▬ steady 0.090 m
08 Oct 06:00 ▬ steady 0.090 m
08 Oct 05:00 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.090 m
08 Oct 04:00 ▲ +0.2 cm 0.091 m
08 Oct 03:00 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.089 m
08 Oct 02:45 ▲ +0.1 cm 0.090 m
08 Oct 02:30 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.089 m
08 Oct 02:15 ▬ steady 0.090 m
08 Oct 02:00 ▲ +0.1 cm 0.090 m
08 Oct 01:45 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.089 m
08 Oct 01:30 ▬ steady 0.090 m
08 Oct 01:15 ▬ steady 0.090 m
08 Oct 01:00 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.090 m
08 Oct 00:45 ▲ +0.2 cm 0.091 m
08 Oct 00:30 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.089 m
08 Oct 00:15 ▬ steady 0.090 m
08 Oct 00:00 0.090 m

Station Details

  • Monitoring Station: Litton Cheney
  • Watercourse: Litton Cheney Stream
  • Nearest Town: Litton Cheney
  • County: Dorset
  • Nearest reservoir: Sutton Bingham (21.0 km) · 44.6% full (as of 31 Aug 2026)
  • Coordinates: 50°42'39"N 2°38'20"W (50.710758, -2.638832)
  • Open in: Google Maps · Apple Maps (opens your maps app)
  • Date Opened: 1 Jun 1989
  • Status: Active (This gauge is affected by abstraction and/or flow augmentation which may cause rapid fluctuations in)
  • Station Type: River level station
Technical details: references, datum, range, flow archive
  • Station Reference: 44112
  • Also at this site: LITTON CHENEY DL (E16529, flow, reporting)
  • RLOI id: 3288 (the EA's check-for-flooding station id)
  • EA Gauge ID: 44112-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: West Dorset Streams
  • Typical Range: 0.094 – 0.500 m
  • Drainage Area: 35 km² upstream of this gauge
  • Flow Data: Daily mean flow (m³/s) to 6 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: 0.09 m (EA at 8 Oct 10:00)
  • 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.

Nearby

Rainfall & Weather

Loading rainfall and weather data...

How often this river runs high

In a typical year this gauge reaches its typical high of 0.50 m on about 3 days. This year so far: 5 days.

2026 5 days so far
2025 1 day
2024 1 day
2023 13 days
2022 0 days
2021 0 days
2020 4 days
2019 5 days
2018 0 days
2017 0 days

Counted from each day's highest reading. Days with missing or implausible readings are left out.

Flood history near this gauge

Official Environment Agency warnings issued since 2006 for the 12 flood areas linked to this gauge (nearest 2.2 km away).

3severe warnings 201flood warnings 354flood alerts

Most recent flood warning: 8 Feb 2026 — Upper Frome at Maiden Newton

Year by year
YearSevereWarningsAlerts
2026 0 7 5
2025 0 13 13
2024 0 26 24
2023 0 33 18
2022 0 11 25
2021 0 6 7
2020 0 7 30
2019 0 12 28
2018 0 15 39
2017 0 12 24
2016 0 16 36
2015 0 4 24
2014 2 17 46
2013 0 5 17
2012 1 10 9
2011 0 0 9
2009 0 1 0
2007 0 4 0
2006 0 2 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 Litton Cheney flood history.

Flood areas linked to this gauge

Flood warnings and alerts are issued for whole areas. These are the 12 areas linked to this gauge, nearest first.

Show 4 more

Catchment Character

🌊 Groundwater-fed Slow and steady — fed largely by groundwater, so levels change gradually, not in sudden spikes.

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
0.89
groundwater-fed — slow & steady
Avg Annual Rainfall
1,141 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +6% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
0.5%
largely rural
Median Annual Flood
1.02 m³/s
QMED — typical yearly peak flow
Highest Daily Mean Flow
2.91 m³/s
14 Dec 2000 · daily mean, not the instantaneous peak
Flow-Duration Curve
mean 0.1880.8080.0870.0215% (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 5%Grassland 46%Arable 47%Urban 2%
Grassland 50% → 46% since 1990

Photos

Gauging-station photographs from the National River Flow Archive (UKCEH).

11 Jul 2019 — View downstream from gauging station 11 Jul 2019 View downstream from gauging station 11 Jul 2019 — View upstream from gauging station 11 Jul 2019 View upstream from gauging station 11 Jul 2019 — View downstream to gauging station 11 Jul 2019 View downstream to gauging station 11 Jul 2019 — View upstream to gauging station 11 Jul 2019 View upstream to gauging station 4 Nov 2011 — Weir and stage board 4 Nov 2011 Weir and stage board 4 Nov 2011 — Looking upstream to gauging station 4 Nov 2011 Looking upstream to gauging station 4 Nov 2011 — Looking downstream to gauging station 4 Nov 2011 Looking downstream to gauging station View downstream from gauging station View downstream from gauging station Looking upstream to gauging station Looking upstream to gauging station

Photos © NRFA / UKCEH & the measuring authority — shown at web resolution. Full gallery on the NRFA ↗

About this gauge

Flat V crump weir built in 1992.

More detail

The catchment

Predominantly Lower Chalk with small outcrops of Middle and Upper Chalk forming higher ground flanking the catchment. Mainly pastoral with some arable agriculture on flatter ground. No major catchment changes.

The station

The station was built in 1992 with a Flat V Crump weir structure, 3.0m wide.

How it measures flow

No evidence of bypassing but culvert upstream may interfere and surcharge at high flows causing ponding upstream and may cause attenuation of flood peak. All flows remain in bank, good fit to check gaugings. Can have lower flow than upstream station due to abstraction. One peak flow rating applied across period of record.

Flow regime

Subject to public abstraction.

The flow record

Full period of record peak flow data reviewed and released in October 2018 (WINFAP Files v7) and 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
1993
Flow record
1993–2024 · 31 yrs · 100% complete
Peak-flow record
since 1992
Hydrometric area
44
Measured by
Environment Agency

Frequently asked questions

Is the Litton Cheney Stream at Litton Cheney flooding today?

The current level is 0.09m, which is below the typical range. Flooding is very unlikely at this level.

Is the river level rising or falling at Litton Cheney?

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 Litton Cheney Stream at Litton Cheney?

The typical range at this station is 0.09m to 0.50m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 0.50m 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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🏠 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 →