Frome, Piddle, Poole Harbour and Purbeck catchment
• White Lackington • Dorset • ID: 44221 • Level
(32m ago) • 4 readings/hr • 128 views
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⤴Unusual rise — FloodRadar+Top 1% rise rate for this gauge.
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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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Not an emergency service — if in danger call 999. Alerts rely on
EA/SEPA/NRW data and are best-efforts. Terms
Current Level
0.089 mASD
▬ Steady
24h Max
0.090 mASD
24h Min
0.089 mASD
Typical Range
0.08 - 0.63
mASD
Highest Recorded
1.04 mASD
EA official record
1.00 in our data (since Nov 2012)
Current level is 9% 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.
2 storm overflows are traced upstream of this gauge, the nearest 790 m away along the river. 0 report discharging now, 1 reports not discharging, and for 1 the monitor is offline or has not reported, so their status is not known.
Wessex Water · into River Cerne · 4.9 km away in a straight line · not connected to this gauge on the river map
24 spills · 545 hours in 2025
Not discharging now · last
1 other overflow within 6 km is downstream of this gauge or on another branch of the river network, so it is 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 White Lackington flood history.
Flood areas linked to this gauge
Flood warnings and alerts are issued for whole areas. These are the 3 areas linked to this gauge, nearest first.
🌊 Mixed responseA balance of quick runoff and slower groundwater baseflow.
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
0.53
mixed response
Avg Annual Rainfall
775 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +3% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
2.4%
largely rural
Median Annual Flood
8.95 m³/s
QMED — typical yearly peak flow
Highest Daily Mean Flow
13.10 m³/s
6 Nov 1966 · 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.
Compound Crump profile weir; velocity-area for flows greater than 4.4 cumecs. Weed growth downstream affects rating in summer.
More detail
The catchment
Catchment predominantly of Lower Lias and Oolitic Limestone. Land use is rural with no large built up areas. No major catchment changes.
The station
Station opened in 1965. Compound Crump profile weir, approx. 330m upstream of Cary Bridge. Centre section 3.05m broad, two side sections 1.22m broad. Velocity area station for flows greater than 4.4 cumecs (downstream summer weed growth affects the stability of stage-discharge relationship). Truncated up and down stream.
How it measures flow
Full range station, banks containing all but exceptional floods. Rating reviewed in 2011. Separate curve for the first two years after construction. Weed growth d/s affects rating in summer & high flows. No apparent bypassing. New curve derived from gaugings from 1992 allowing for drowning and in-channel vegetation growth.
Flow regime
Minor groundwater abstractions & some augmentation from effluent returns. Overall more discharge than abstraction.
The flow record
Various rejected years between 1965 and 1992 due to 15-min data being unavailable and the flow calculated from two stage values per day leading to uncertainties. Full period of record peak flow data reviewed and released in August 2021 (WINFAP Files v10).
Timing, not cause. Gauges can move together simply because the same rain fell on both.
Frequently asked questions
Is the River Piddle at South House flooding today?
The current level is 0.09m, which is within the typical range of 0.08 to 0.63m. Flooding is unlikely at this level.
Is the river level rising or falling at South House?
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 Piddle at South House?
The typical range at this station is 0.08m to 0.63m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 0.63m 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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