Thames from Hurley to Teddington catchment
• Kingston Upon Thames • Greater London • ID: 3400TH • Level
(32m ago) • 4 readings/hr • 211 views
Set water level alerts
Get notified about Kingston — tick as many as you like, they all share the notify settings below.
Alert me when (tick one or more)
⤴Unusual rise — FloodRadar+Top 1% rise rate for this gauge.
Height for "Above a height"
Drag the line on the chart, or type a value:mASD
Quick pick:
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.
Notify by (tick one or more)
Your browser will ask permission, then you'll get a notification even when FloodRadar isn't open.
On iPhone: tap Share → Add to Home Screen first, then open it from there and set the alert. Show me how
Each one is saved as its own alert — pause or remove them individually any time.
Not an emergency service — if in danger call 999. Alerts rely on
EA/SEPA/NRW data and are best-efforts. Terms
Current Level
4.324 mASD
▲ Rising slightly
24h Max
4.367 mASD
24h Min
4.262 mASD
Typical Range
3.49 - 5.15
mASD
Highest Recorded
5.71 mASD
EA official record
A 9.63 reading (31 Mar 2025) sits in our unverified raw history and is not treated as the record
Current level is 76% of this
ⓘ
Flood alert
Tidal Thames riverside from Putney Bridge to Teddington Weir
High tides overnight may lead to flooding.
Flooding is possible from 02:15 AM to 04:15 AM on Saturday 10th October.
The forecast high tide at Richmond is 4.70 mAOD at 03:15 AM on 10/10/2026.
We believe there is a possibility of flooding for Putney Embankment (SW15), Chiswick Mall and Strand on the Green (W4), Thames Bank at Mortlake (SW14), Ranelagh Drive (TW1), Friars Lane and Water Lane (TW9), Riverside and The Embankment at Twickenham, and the Towpath below Teddington Lock. Flooding of properties is not expected.
Astronomical tide levels are rising. The river flow at Teddington Weir is 4 cubic metres per second and is steady. We anticipate the flows to remain steady for the next few days.
We are closely monitoring the situation .
Avoid low lying roads near rivers, which may be flooded.
This message will be updated by 9:00AM on Saturday 10 October or as the situation changes.
Tidal Thames riverside from the Thames Barrier to Putney Bridge
High tides overnight may lead to flooding.
Flooding is possible from 01:00 AM to 03:00 AM on Saturday 10th October.
The forecast high tide at London Bridge is 4.50 mAOD at 02:00 AM on 10/10/2026.
We believe there is a possibility of flooding for Custom House (EC3R), Narrow Street (E14), Mayflower and Angel pubs (SE16), Royal Naval College riverfront, the Almshouse Slipway at Crane Street (SE10), Bankside by the Tate Modern (SE1), and Three Mill Island (E3). Flooding of properties is not expected.
Astronomical tide levels are rising. The river flow at Teddington Weir is 4 cubic metres per second and is steady. We anticipate the flows to remain steady for the next few days.
We are closely monitoring the situation .
Avoid low lying roads near rivers, which may be flooded.
This message will be updated by 9:00AM on Saturday 10 October or as the situation changes.
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 7 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.
159 storm overflows are traced upstream of this gauge, the nearest 200 m away along the river. 0 report discharging now, 155 report not discharging, and for 4 the monitor is offline or has not reported, so their status is not known.
Thames Water · into River Thames Tidal · 5.8 km away in a straight line · discharges to the sea, an estuary or tidal water
17 spills · 203 hours in 2025
Not discharging now · last
3 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 →
This gauge rarely reaches its typical high of 5.15 m:
77 days since 2017.
This year so far: 12 days.
202612 days so far
20255 days patchy data
202431 days patchy data
20234 days patchy data
20220 days
20217 days patchy data
20207 days patchy data
20197 days patchy data
20184 days patchy data
20170 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 2008 for the 37 flood
areas linked to this gauge (nearest 0.2 km away).
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 Kingston Upon Thames flood history.
Flood areas linked to this gauge
Flood warnings and alerts are issued for whole areas. These are the 37 areas linked to this gauge, nearest first.
🌊 Groundwater-fedSlow 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
0.65
groundwater-fed — slow & steady
Avg Annual Rainfall
753 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +4% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
6.6%
partly urbanised
Median Annual Flood
317 m³/s
QMED — typical yearly peak flow
Highest Daily Mean Flow
800 m³/s
18 Nov 1894 · 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.
The Thames at Kingston, replacing the d/s Teddington weir measurement structures, has one of the longest flow records associated with any UK flow gauging station. Dating from 1883, it is of major historical and modern day significance. Naturalised flows are available for the period of record. In May 2023, Kingston was recognised by the World Meteorological Organization for having more than 100 years of hydrological observations.
More detail
The catchment
Diverse topography, geology and land use, which, together with the pattern of water utilisation, has undergone important historical changes.
The station
Until 1974 the GDFs were derived from Teddington Weir (a 150m long complex of gates, sluices, weirs and locks that span 70m across the river), where a tailwater rating was used with twice-daily levels (at low tide) to compute flows >85 cumecs. In 1974 a single path US was commissioned 2km upstream to replace the weir as the primary method for flow derivation. This was upgraded to a multi-path configuration (6 paths) US in 1986, and a second US was installed in 1991 to confirm the performance of the primary gauge. Work undertaken in 2018 to further upgrade the ultrasonics to make the station resilient to a 1-in-1000 year flood event.
How it measures flow
Kingston: US (6 paths) with back-up to confirm the performance of the primary gauge. During warm weather the gauge can malfunction as the ultrasonic beam is bent by temperature gradients in the river, however this is unlikely to affect high flows but can effect gauge performance at low flows. No issues from temperature gradients have been seen in the past 20years. Increased channel capacity means that bank-full is now very rarely exceeded and the ultrasonic gauge is capable of measuring all within bank flows. Generally, accuracy is good at peak flows, although less so for flows below 5 cumecs. Teddington Weir: Only DMFs are estimated. High hydrometric accuracy is made difficult by leakage, lockages and the general complexity of the site. Significant structural improvements have been made since 1883, but high hydrometric accuracy not achievable for the pre-1951 record. The history of flow measurement at Teddington is detailed in Chapter 6 of Hydrometry: Principles and Practices (1978), Ed. R. W. Herschy, John Wiley and Sons.
Flow regime
Baseflow sustained mainly from the Chalk and the Oolites. Regulation from surface water and/or ground water and reservoir(s) in the catchment affect runoff. Flashy response from tributaries draining the clay dominated catchments. Some effluent derived from outside the catchment increases runoff but overall this is substantially less than major PWS and industrial/agricultural abstractions. Gw abstraction/recharge may also contribute to runoff patterns.
The flow record
Daily naturalised flows available. Daily abstractions between Windsor (39072) and Teddington are added to the DMFs. Leakage and lockages were allowed for in the Teddington flow calculation, but may have resulted in the underestimation of early low flows This was likely to have been a particular problem in the 1930s and 1940s. Gauged flow fell to zero in August 1976. The 1894 peak GDF was re-assessed in 2002 (800 cumecs). The AMAX provided are derived from the definitive natural annual maximum mean daily flow series (not instantaneous AMAX).
How this gauging station is built and how long it has measured (NRFA / UKCEH).
Gauge type
Ultrasonic
Operating since
1883
Station datum
4.7 mAOD
Flow record
1883–2024 · 141 yrs · 100% complete
Peak-flow record
since 1883
Hydrometric area
39
Measured by
Environment Agency
Nearby Groundwater
Soil Moisture
Possible storm-overflow correlation
Frequently asked questions
Is the River Thames at Kingston flooding today?
The current level is 4.32m, which is within the typical range of 3.49 to 5.15m. Flooding is unlikely at this level.
Is the river level rising or falling at Kingston?
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.
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 7.6mm 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 Thames at Kingston?
The typical range at this station is 3.49m to 5.15m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 5.15m 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.
Embed this gauge on your website
Free live river-level widget — ideal for parish councils, angling clubs and local sites. Updates automatically.
Preview
📮 Flood risk by postcode near this gauge
Postcodes within 5 km with properties in the Environment Agency’s rivers-and-sea flood-risk bands:
FloodRadar
Log inCreate free account
15 Jul 2022 Teddington Weir
15 Jul 2022 Looking upstream towards Teddington Weir
4 Dec 2011 3.5 Cumecs over Teddington Weir
25 Nov 2011 6 Cumecs over Teddington Weir
5 Oct 2004 View of ultrasonic section looking downstream from left bank
Measuring section.
View looking upstream
View Downstream
