Northern Manchester catchment
• Manchester • Greater Manchester • ID: 690713 • Level
(21m ago) • 4 readings/hr • 150 views
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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.
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EA/SEPA/NRW data and are best-efforts. Terms
Current Level
0.182 m
▲ Rising (+3cm/hr)
24h Max
0.448 m
24h Min
0.160 m
Typical Range
0.07 - 1.40
m
Highest Recorded
1.80 m
EA official record
1.87 in our data (since Mar 1975)
Current level is 10% 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 8 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.
12 storm overflows are traced upstream of this gauge, the nearest 400 m away along the river. 0 report discharging now, 12 report not discharging.
United Utilities · into River Blakewater · 1.6 km away in a straight line · its recorded watercourse is not the one mapped beside it
34 spills · 32 hours in 2025
Not discharging now · last
120 more within 6 km whose connection is not known.
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 Manchester flood history.
Flood areas linked to this gauge
Flood warnings and alerts are issued for whole areas. These are the 13 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
0.38
mixed response
Avg Annual Rainfall
1,079 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +4% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
37%
heavily urbanised
Median Annual Flood
23.27 m³/s
QMED — typical yearly peak flow
Highest Daily Mean Flow
20.98 m³/s
28 Jul 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.
A non-standard short crested weir in rectangular concrete channel in heavily urbanised catchment.
More detail
The catchment
A heavily urbanised and industrial catchment extending into parts of Manchester and the southerly Pennine hills. Geology consists of coal measures overlain with post glacial soils. No catchment changes known.
The station
A non-standard short crested weir 8.5m wide with sloping downstream face. Weir located in a rectangular concrete channel with vertical walls, upstream of a large culvert. Although the station was operational from April 1969, works were not completed until Sept 1969.
How it measures flow
Debris collects on the weir in this urban environment. Some siltation around the inlet pipe. No bypassing. Modelling suggests weir drowns at the highest flows. From 1989-1992 construction of the Mancunian Way (motorway) significantly altered the river channel downstream of the gauging station. The channel was narrowed and wooden crest blocks were attached to the weir to create a low flow notch. They proved unsuccessful and were removed in October 1992. Access is difficult and gauging hazardous, current meter gaugings above low flows are taken from an upstream bridge. Peak flow rating based on gaugings at low flows, with modelled extrapolation, more gaugings are needed. All gaugings are now carried out at Palmerston Street which is approximately half a kilometre upstream. Multiple peak flow ratings apply over the period of record. Pressure sensor in river.
Flow regime
Some runoff from artificial surfaces. Greatly affected by effluent discharges.
The flow record
Peak flow data are rejected during motorway construction due to large fluctuations in stage (Oct 1989 to Aug 1992). Full period of record peak flow data reviewed and released in August 2021 (WINFAP Files v10).
How this gauging station is built and how long it has measured (NRFA / UKCEH).
Gauge type
Gauging structure
Operating since
1954
Station datum
30.7 mAOD
Flow record
1974–2024 · 50 yrs · 100% complete
Peak-flow record
since 1969
Hydrometric area
69
Measured by
Environment Agency
Nearby Groundwater
Soil Moisture
Possible storm-overflow correlation
Frequently asked questions
Is the River Medlock at London Road flooding today?
The current level is 0.18m, which is within the typical range of 0.07 to 1.40m. Flooding is unlikely at this level.
Is the river level rising or falling at London Road?
Based on the most recent readings, the level is currently rising. 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 Medlock at London Road?
The typical range at this station is 0.07m to 1.40m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 1.40m 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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18 Oct 2017 Downstream view towards weir
18 Oct 2017 Upstream channel
18 May 2011
14 Sep 2010 View downstream at 0.618m
Looking d/s over weir from L bank
Culvert downstream
Looking upstream