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0.13

Great Chesterford

Cam
Cam and Ely Ouse (Including South Level) catchment • Great Chesterford • Essex • ID: E21778 • Level
(33m ago) • 3 readings/hr • 148 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
0.127 m
▬ Steady
24h Max
0.127 m
24h Min
0.112 m
Typical Range
0.11 - 0.33
m
Highest Recorded
0.70 m
EA official record
0.66 in our data (since Jan 1988)
Current level is 18% of this
🚽 Sewage overflows nearby

Recent Water Levels

🌍 floodradar.co.uk
1 day

Recent Readings

Rising · +0.3 cm over 6h
23 Aug 23:15 ▬ steady 0.127 m
23 Aug 23:00 ▬ steady 0.127 m
23 Aug 22:45 ▬ steady 0.127 m
23 Aug 21:30 ▬ steady 0.127 m
23 Aug 21:15 ▬ steady 0.127 m
23 Aug 21:00 ▬ steady 0.127 m
23 Aug 20:45 ▬ steady 0.127 m
23 Aug 20:30 ▲ +0.1 cm 0.127 m
23 Aug 20:15 ▬ steady 0.126 m
23 Aug 20:00 ▬ steady 0.126 m
23 Aug 19:45 ▬ steady 0.126 m
23 Aug 19:30 ▬ steady 0.126 m
23 Aug 19:15 ▲ +0.1 cm 0.126 m
23 Aug 19:00 ▬ steady 0.125 m
23 Aug 18:45 ▲ +0.1 cm 0.125 m
23 Aug 18:30 ▬ steady 0.124 m
23 Aug 18:15 ▬ steady 0.124 m
23 Aug 18:00 ▬ steady 0.124 m
23 Aug 17:45 ▬ steady 0.124 m
23 Aug 17:30 0.124 m

Rainfall & Weather

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Flood history near this gauge

Official Environment Agency warnings issued since 2013 for the 8 flood areas linked to this gauge (nearest 3.9 km away).

2flood warnings 74flood alerts

Most recent flood warning: 4 Jan 2024River Cam at Henham, Newport and Littlebury

Year by year
YearWarningsAlerts
2026 0 7
2025 0 2
2024 1 16
2023 0 9
2022 0 2
2021 0 8
2020 1 9
2019 0 2
2018 0 2
2017 0 2
2016 0 5
2014 0 8
2013 0 2

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 Great Chesterford flood history.

Nearby Stations

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Station Details

  • Monitoring Station: Great Chesterford
  • Watercourse: River Cam
  • Nearest Town: Great Chesterford
  • County: Essex
  • Coordinates: 52°3'42"N 0°11'39"E (52.061730, 0.194279)
  • Open in: Google Maps · Apple Maps (opens your maps app)
  • Date Opened: 1 Jul 1992
  • Status: Active
  • Station Type: River level station
  • Station Reference: E21778
  • EA Gauge ID: E21778-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: Cam and Ely Ouse (Including South Level)
  • Typical Range: 0.109 – 0.333 m
  • Drainage Area: 141 km² upstream of this gauge
  • Flow Data: Available (m³/s) via EA Hydrology
  • EA Cross-check: 0.13 m (EA at 23 Aug 23:15)
  • 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

🌊 Mixed response A 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
0.58
mixed response
Avg Annual Rainfall
633 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +4% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
2.5%
largely rural
Median Annual Flood
7.90 m³/s
QMED — typical yearly peak flow
Highest Recorded Flow
11.00 m³/s
10 Oct 1987
Flow-Duration Curve
mean 0.5861.730.3740.1545% (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 7%Grassland 17%Arable 69%Urban 6%
Arable 78% → 69% since 1990

Flow affected by: groundwater abstraction, 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

Compound broad-crested weir gauging a rural predominantly Chalk catchment largely overlain with Boulder Clay, significant artificial influences.

More detail

The catchment

Predominantly Chalk largely overlain by Boulder Clay. Rural, predominantly arable land use.

The station

Compound broad-crested weir, 22.3m broad (in trapezoidal section) with central notch 3m broad, 0.23m deep. Previously called Chesterford Mill, and included millstream flow through old mill on the side of existing river channel.

How it measures flow

Flow remains modular to 1.06m. One peak flow rating applied across period of record. Stage record before 14 May 1969 truncated at around 0.46m; peaks are therefore unknown over this period and the peak flow record present here starts on 14 May 1969. Prior to 1964, millstream flow was added to main weir rating using a rating table.

Flow regime

Significant gw abstractions for PWS, with additional abstractions for industry/agriculture. Runoff increased by effluent returns.

The flow record

Full period of record peak flow data reviewed and released in October 2018 (WINFAP Files v7) and August 2025 (WINFAP Files v14).

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
1964
Station datum
35.2 mAOD
Flow record
1964–2024 · 60 yrs · 97% complete
Peak-flow record
since 1964
Hydrometric area
33
Measured by
Environment Agency

Frequently asked questions

Is the River Cam at Great Chesterford flooding today?

The current level is 0.13m, which is within the typical range of 0.11 to 0.33m. Flooding is unlikely at this level.

Is the river level rising or falling at Great Chesterford?

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 Cam at Great Chesterford?

The typical range at this station is 0.11m to 0.33m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 0.33m 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.

Embed this gauge on your website

Free live river-level widget — ideal for parish councils, angling clubs and local sites. Updates automatically.

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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 →