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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
0.902 m
▼ Falling (-2cm/hr)
24h Max
1.278 m
24h Min
0.889 m
Typical Range
0.28 - 3.60
m
Highest Recorded
8.17 m
EA official record
8.17 in our data (since Jan 1979)
Current level is 11% 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
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.
22 storm overflows are traced upstream of this gauge, the nearest 1.3 km away along the river. 0 report discharging now, 21 report not discharging, and for 1 the monitor is offline or has not reported, so their status is not known.
United Utilities · into Black Dike, Trib Keer Estuary · 5.7 km away in a straight line · discharges to the sea, an estuary or tidal water
21 spills · 43 hours in 2025
Not discharging now · last
2 more within 6 km whose connection is not known.
4 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 Caton flood history.
Flood areas linked to this gauge
Flood warnings and alerts are issued for whole areas. These are the 24 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
0.40
mixed response
Avg Annual Rainfall
1,633 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +7% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
0.4%
largely rural
Median Annual Flood
738 m³/s
QMED — typical yearly peak flow
Highest Daily Mean Flow
1,440 m³/s
5 Dec 2015 · 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.
Compound-broad crested weir. Early record contains data from two sites (measuring high and low flows). Some influences on low flows due to transfers and abstractions.
More detail
The catchment
Headwaters rise from Shap Fell and the Pennines. Mixed geology with Carboniferous Limestone; Silurian shales; Millstone Grit and Coal Measures. Substantial Drift cover. Agriculture in valleys; grassland with peat moss in highest areas. No significant catchment changes.
The station
Compound broad-crested weir. Station opened in 1968 to measure low flows, with Halton 3 km downstream measuring high flows. On closure of Halton in 1985, Caton became a full-range station and the records were combined.
How it measures flow
The cableway downstream at Halton was used to gauge higher flows until severely damaged in the January 1995 event. One peak flow rating across period of record based on gaugings, extrapolated using a hydraulic model to allow for floodplain flow. The highest gauging on record (at Halton) is a rough estimate (based on gauging across half the river before the gauging hut had to be evacuated).
Flow regime
Transfers to River Wyre under Lancashire Conjunctive Use Scheme (LCUS). Major abstractions for public water supply.
The flow record
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
Gauging structure
Operating since
1959
Station datum
10.7 mAOD
Flow record
1959–2024 · 65 yrs · 97% complete
Peak-flow record
since 1968
Hydrometric area
72
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 High River Keer: when about 6mm of rain falls near High River Keer in 6h, this gauge usually starts rising about 2 hours later.
Recent rain upstream: 0mm/6h — below High River Keer's usual trigger.
Record: this held 8 of 11 times (live) · rain gauge: Rainfall station
Experimental, from historical rain and river data. Not an official flood warning.
Related gauges
Measured from a year of how these gauges actually moved.
Timing, not cause. Gauges can move together simply because the same rain fell on both.
Frequently asked questions
Is the River Lune at Caton flooding today?
The current level is 0.90m, which is within the typical range of 0.28 to 3.60m. Flooding is unlikely at this level.
Is the river level rising or falling at Caton?
Based on the most recent readings, the level is currently falling. 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 Lune at Caton?
The typical range at this station is 0.28m to 3.60m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 3.60m 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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1986
1986
1986
1986
1986
Vew of the catchment and recorder hut
Looking u/s from L bank
Looking d/s from L bank
View across weir from L bank
