London catchment
• Catford • Greater London • ID: 4369TH • Level
(32m ago) • 4 readings/hr • 123 views
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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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EA/SEPA/NRW data and are best-efforts. Terms
Current Level
0.071 mASD
▼ Easing
24h Max
0.121 mASD
24h Min
0.062 mASD
Typical Range
0.07 - 1.35
mASD
Highest Recorded
1.04 mASD
29 May 2013
Since Jan 1985
Current level is 7% 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. The nearest rain gauge has sent no readings in the last day, so Nimbus has no recent measured rain to work from here.
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
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.
Thames Water · into R.thames ( Tidal ) · 5.5 km away in a straight line · discharges to the sea, an estuary or tidal water
3 spills · 46 hours in 2025
Not discharging now · last
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 Catford flood history.
Flood areas linked to this gauge
Flood warnings and alerts are issued for whole areas. These are the 9 areas linked to this gauge, nearest first.
🌊 Urban & flashyHeavily built-up — rain runs off hard surfaces fast, so levels can spike within hours of 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
0.53
mixed response
Avg Annual Rainfall
670 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +2% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
55%
heavily urbanised
Highest Daily Mean Flow
5.11 m³/s
30 Dec 2002 · 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.
Land Cover (2023)
Woodland 6%Grassland 20%Urban 74%
Flow affected by: groundwater abstraction.
Photos
Gauging-station photographs from the National River Flow Archive (UKCEH).
Trapezoidal flume, runoff is reduced by groundwater abstractions.
More detail
The catchment
The Pool River rises as Chalk springs (below Addington Hill) but flows mostly over impervious Eocene deposits. Land use: primarily a suburban/urban catchment in south London.
The station
Trapezoidal, critical depth flume constructed in 1974 located approximately 0.5km upstream of confluence with the Ravensbourne. The site replaces a previous station (Selworthy Road, 39827) that was located approximately 300m upstream of the current site and which was operational 1961-71. Removed from peak flows dataset in February 2018 (WINFAP Files v6).
How it measures flow
Algal growth causes apparent higher flow than d/s site at Catford Hill (39056). Rating is derived theoretically for the structure and assumes no drowning or by-passing. Spot gaugings support the lower end of the rating but the maximum gauged flow is substantially below QMED. A 2009 modelling study confirmed the theoretical rating and found that the station doesn't drown and that all flow is contained within the structure to flows beyond QMED, so the rating curve is considered valid to above QMED. The rating history of the site is complex and has required flows to be reprocessed in the past. This has resulted from changes in measurement units and errors in rating derivation, rather than changes to the station control, however, and the current rating (FQ/migrated.V1) is considered definitive for the whole period of record in the absence of spot flow gaugings at higher stages.
Flow regime
Runoff is reduced by groundwater abstractions and artificial influences evident at low flows.
The flow record
Daily flows reprocessed from Jan 1985. Some earlier daily flow data (1961-71) exist for an u/s site - Selworthy Road (39827).
Timing, not cause. Gauges can move together simply because the same rain fell on both.
Frequently asked questions
Is the River Pool at Winsford Road flooding today?
The current level is 0.07m, which is within the typical range of 0.07 to 1.35m. Flooding is unlikely at this level.
Is the river level rising or falling at Winsford Road?
Based on the most recent readings, the level is currently falling slightly. The chart above shows the last 12 hours of measurements by default (up to 7 days), updated roughly every 15 minutes.
Why is the level slowly falling?
When little or no rain has fallen for a while, a river level gradually drops as the water stored in the ground and soil drains away with nothing to replace it. This is called baseflow recession and is normal in dry spells. Only about 0.0mm of rain has fallen nearby in the last 7 days, so the flow is being sustained mainly by groundwater. A gentle decline like this is expected and is not a sign of a problem — downstream gauges often recede a little faster than headwaters further upstream, and levels recover once rain returns.
What is a normal level for the River Pool at Winsford Road?
The typical range at this station is 0.07m to 1.35m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 1.35m 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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