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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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Not an emergency service — if in danger call 999. Alerts rely on
EA/SEPA/NRW data and are best-efforts. Terms
Current Level
0.974 m
▼ Easing (-1cm/hr)
24h Max
1.098 m
24h Min
0.487 m
Typical Range
0.40 - 1.80
m
Highest Recorded
5.03 m
EA official record
5.03 in our data (since Jan 1974)
Current level is 19% 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 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.
128 storm overflows are traced upstream of this gauge, the nearest 180 m away along the river. 8 report discharging now, 113 report not discharging, and for 7 the monitor is offline or has not reported, so their status is not known.
United Utilities · into Crookilley Brook Culvert · 3.9 km away in a straight line · its watercourse is not on the river map
0 spills · 0 hours in 2025
Not discharging now
24 more within 6 km whose connection is not known.
30 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 →
In a typical year this gauge reaches its typical high of 1.80 m
on about 7 days.
This year so far: 0 days.
20260 days so far
20256 days, 6 of them high · 6 high
20247 days, 4 of them high · 4 high
20237 days, 6 of them high · 6 high
20223 days, 3 of them high · 3 high
20217 days, 7 of them high · 7 high
20208 days, 8 of them high · 8 high
201916 days, 13 of them high · 13 high
20181 day
20176 days, 4 of them high · 4 high
Counted from each day's highest reading. Days with missing or implausible readings are left out.
The darker part is days above 1.91 m, the level this gauge tops only a few days a year.
Flood history near this gauge
Official Environment Agency warnings issued since 2006 for the 33 flood
areas linked to this gauge (nearest 1.7 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 Stockport flood history.
Flood areas linked to this gauge
Flood warnings and alerts are issued for whole areas. These are the 33 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
0.41
mixed response
Avg Annual Rainfall
1,262 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +7% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
8.2%
partly urbanised
Median Annual Flood
141 m³/s
QMED — typical yearly peak flow
Highest Daily Mean Flow
188 m³/s
21 Dec 1991 · 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.
Upper catchment in the Pennine hills. Geology comprises mostly peat-covered Millstone Grit in the headwaters, Coal Measures, and Boulder Clay in the lower catchment. Catchment includes towns such as Glossop and Chapel-en-le-Frith upstream, with parts of Greater Manchester, including Stockport and Tameside lower down. The lower catchment has mixed farmland, urban and industry.
The station
Velocity-area station in Stockport opened in 1955. Immediately downstream of a bridge. Station is downstream of the confluences of the Goyt, Etherow, and Tame. Primarily a high flow site operationally, due to the insensitive nature of low flow open channel control. Station used for flood forecasting and warnings, data used for management of flood storage basins at Didsbury Gates and Sale Ees Gates.
How it measures flow
A gravel bar and associated mid-channel bar downstream act as control at most flows, with a small drop at Cheadle Weir (an old mill weir) approx 130m downstream of the station. All flows contained. Some occasional blockage of the inlet pipe, thought not to reduce flow estimates significantly. Rating developed from gaugings and hydraulic model. The top 3 limbs of the current rating have been applied over period of record. Some changes are likely to have occurred to the rating over time due to deposition (e.g. after the December 1991 event) and vegetation growth. No high flow gaugings historically, some around QMED now taken by ADCP.
Flow regime
Major reservoirs upstream - the Longendale Chain (plus Arnfield) on the Etherow, and Fernilee and Errwood reservoirs on the Goyt. Errwood Reservoir was completed in 1967. All other major reservoirs were built before the station was opened in 1955.
The flow record
The highest event, in 1973, corresponds with the only known flooding in Stockport from the Mersey. Full period of record peak flow data reviewed and released in September 2019 (WINFAP Files v8).
How this gauging station is built and how long it has measured (NRFA / UKCEH).
Gauge type
Velocity–area
Operating since
1955
Station datum
33.5 mAOD
Flow record
1974–2024 · 50 yrs · 100% complete
Peak-flow record
since 1955
Hydrometric area
69
Measured by
Environment Agency
Nearby Groundwater
Soil Moisture
Possible storm-overflow correlation
Rain upstream
This gauge has no rain model of its own, but it usually follows Broomstairs Bridge: when about 6mm of rain falls near Broomstairs Bridge in 6h, this gauge usually starts rising about 75 minutes later.
Timing, not cause. Gauges can move together simply because the same rain fell on both.
Frequently asked questions
Is the River Mersey at Brinksway flooding today?
The current level is 0.97m, which is within the typical range of 0.40 to 1.80m. Flooding is unlikely at this level.
Is the river level rising or falling at Brinksway?
Based on the most recent readings, the level is currently falling 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. 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 Mersey at Brinksway?
The typical range at this station is 0.40m to 1.80m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 1.80m 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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