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0.12

Felsted

Chelmer
Essex catchment • Felsted • Essex • ID: E22862 • Level
(31m ago) • 4 readings/hr • 123 views

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Not an emergency service — if in danger call 999. Alerts rely on EA/SEPA data and are best-efforts. Terms

Current Level
0.116 m
▬ Steady
24h Max
0.118 m
24h Min
0.113 m
Typical Range
0.05 - 1.15
m
Highest Recorded
2.03 m
EA official record
1.90 in our data (since Oct 1979)
Current level is 6% of this
🚽 Sewage overflows nearby

Recent Water Levels

🌍 floodradar.co.uk
1 day

Recent Readings

Rising · +0.2 cm over 6h
24 Aug 00:00 ▬ steady 0.116 m
23 Aug 23:45 ▬ steady 0.116 m
23 Aug 23:30 ▲ +0.1 cm 0.116 m
23 Aug 23:15 ▬ steady 0.115 m
23 Aug 23:00 ▬ steady 0.115 m
23 Aug 22:45 ▲ +0.1 cm 0.115 m
23 Aug 21:30 ▬ steady 0.114 m
23 Aug 21:15 ▬ steady 0.114 m
23 Aug 21:00 ▲ +0.1 cm 0.114 m
23 Aug 20:45 ▬ steady 0.113 m
23 Aug 20:30 ▬ steady 0.113 m
23 Aug 20:15 ▬ steady 0.113 m
23 Aug 20:00 ▬ steady 0.113 m
23 Aug 19:45 ▬ steady 0.113 m
23 Aug 19:30 ▬ steady 0.113 m
23 Aug 19:15 ▬ steady 0.113 m
23 Aug 19:00 ▬ steady 0.113 m
23 Aug 18:45 ▬ steady 0.113 m
23 Aug 18:30 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.113 m
23 Aug 18:15 0.114 m

Rainfall & Weather

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Flood history near this gauge

Official Environment Agency warnings issued since 2007 for the 3 flood areas linked to this gauge (nearest 1.9 km away).

25flood warnings 34flood alerts

Most recent flood warning: 15 Feb 2026The River Brain through Braintree, to and including Witham

Year by year
YearWarningsAlerts
2026 3 3
2025 0 1
2024 5 7
2023 0 2
2021 3 3
2020 0 2
2019 1 2
2016 0 1
2014 4 3
2013 0 1
2012 6 3
2011 0 1
2010 0 1
2009 3 0
2008 0 3
2007 0 1

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 Felsted flood history.

Nearby Stations

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Station Details

  • Monitoring Station: Felsted
  • Watercourse: River Chelmer
  • Nearest Town: Felsted
  • County: Essex
  • Nearest reservoir: Hanningfield (21.8 km) · 54.9% full (as of 28 Dec 2025)
  • Coordinates: 51°50'50"N 0°25'23"E (51.847313, 0.423072)
  • Open in: Google Maps · Apple Maps (opens your maps app)
  • Date Opened: 2 Oct 1979
  • Status: Active
  • Station Type: River level station
  • Station Reference: E22862
  • EA Gauge ID: E22862-level-stage-i-15_min-m
  • Parameter: Level
  • Unit: m
  • Typical data delay: ~22 min (measured reading→publication lag)
  • Tidal: No
  • Lock / structure: No
  • Catchment Area: Essex
  • Typical Range: 0.051 – 1.150 m
  • Drainage Area: 132 km² upstream of this gauge
  • Flow Data: Available (m³/s) via EA Hydrology
  • EA Cross-check: 0.12 m (EA at 23 Aug 23:45)
  • 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.

Catchment Character

🌊 Fairly flashy Responds fairly quickly to rain, with moderate baseflow between events.

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
0.47
mixed response
Avg Annual Rainfall
626 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +4% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
1.9%
largely rural
Median Annual Flood
12.80 m³/s
QMED — typical yearly peak flow
Highest Recorded Flow
24.80 m³/s
30 Oct 2000
Flow-Duration Curve
mean 0.7562.820.3420.1545% (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 4%Grassland 20%Arable 70%Urban 6%
Arable 83% → 70% since 1990

Flow affected by: effluent returns, industrial / agricultural abstraction.

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

'Essex' profile gauging a rural, predominantly London Clay catchment with minor artificial influences.

More detail

The catchment

Chalk in N, London Clay elsewhere, largely overlain with Boulder Clay and some glacial gravel. Rural, agricultural land use, predominantly arable land.

The station

'Essex' profile (modified Flat V Crump) weir with crest tapping.

How it measures flow

Drowning commences at 0.6m, and varies in severity. Limit of reliable gauging is at 1.21m, higher flows estimated. Flood plain storage starts at 1.1m. No spillway. Hydraulic model used to derive rating for high flows. Reasonable fit to gaugings. One peak flow rating applied across period of record.

Flow regime

Minimal abstractions, adjustments needed for STW and industrial effluent discharges.

The flow record

Full period of record peak flow data reviewed and released in August 2021 (WINFAP Files v10).

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
1970
Station datum
40.1 mAOD
Flow record
1970–2024 · 54 yrs · 100% complete
Peak-flow record
since 1970
Hydrometric area
37
Measured by
Environment Agency

Frequently asked questions

Is the River Chelmer at Felsted flooding today?

The current level is 0.12m, which is within the typical range of 0.05 to 1.15m. Flooding is unlikely at this level.

Is the river level rising or falling at Felsted?

Based on the most recent readings, the level is currently steady. The chart above shows the last 7 days of measurements, updated roughly every 15 minutes.

What is a normal level for the River Chelmer at Felsted?

The typical range at this station is 0.05m to 1.15m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 1.15m are higher than usually seen and may indicate a flood risk.

How often is this river level data updated?

Readings are taken by the Environment Agency gauge roughly every 15 minutes and FloodRadar refreshes its data continuously, so the level shown is normally less than an hour old.

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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, floods since 1946, warning history, river behaviour and nearby storm overflows. £19 one-off. Learn more →