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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
0.101 m
▬ Steady
24h Max
0.107 m
24h Min
0.101 m
Typical Range
0.03 - 1.00
m
Highest Recorded
2.00 m
EA official record
A 3.17 reading (4 Aug 2026) sits in our unverified raw history and is not treated as the record
Current level is 5% 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 6 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.
Yorkshire Water · into Walsden Water · 5.2 km away in a straight line · not connected to this gauge on the river map
0 spills · 0 hours in 2025
Monitor offline: it cannot say whether it is discharging
27 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 →
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 Littleborough flood history.
Flood areas linked to this gauge
Flood warnings and alerts are issued for whole areas. These are the 15 areas linked to this gauge, nearest first.
🌊 Fairly flashyResponds 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
0.48
mixed response
Avg Annual Rainfall
1,369 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +7% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
3.4%
partly urbanised
Median Annual Flood
9.60 m³/s
QMED — typical yearly peak flow
Highest Daily Mean Flow
9.61 m³/s
16 Mar 2019 · 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.
Velocity area station on long straight engineered channel reach.
More detail
The catchment
Geology mostly Coal Measures within Millstone Grit to the Northeast and Northwest. Peat overlays geology in moorland hilltops; mixed glacial drift in the lower catchment. No catchment changes known.
The station
Velocity area station opened December 1993 as a level-only station with no formal control. The channel has been engineered both upstream and downstream of the station giving a long, straight profile.
How it measures flow
History of bed movement affecting whole flow range, but not thought to change the high flow regime by more than the criteria for acceptance in the NRFA Peak Flow data holdings. A flood alleviation scheme in 2003 dredged the channel and erected new flood walls. The gradient of the bed is quite steep, leading to high velocities. A large shoal upstream of the bridge was identified after the high flows experienced in late 2009, and was subsequently removed. Two peak flow ratings across period of record derived using low flow current meter gaugings and high flow ADCP gaugings.
Flow regime
Some small reservoirs, including Blackstone Edge.
The flow record
Full period of record peak flow data reviewed and released in September 2019 (WINFAP Files v8). Gauged daily flows from 13/05/2023 to 01/09/2023 are affected by silting of the stilling well.
How this gauging station is built and how long it has measured (NRFA / UKCEH).
Gauge type
Velocity–area
Operating since
1993
Flow record
1993–2024 · 31 yrs · 98% complete
Peak-flow record
since 1993
Hydrometric area
69
Measured by
Environment Agency
Nearby Groundwater
Soil Moisture
Possible storm-overflow correlation
Frequently asked questions
Is the River Roch at Littleborough flooding today?
The current level is 0.10m, which is within the typical range of 0.03 to 1.00m. Flooding is unlikely at this level.
Is the river level rising or falling at Littleborough?
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 Roch at Littleborough?
The typical range at this station is 0.03m to 1.00m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 1.00m 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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