Ribble Douglas and Crossens catchment
• Croston • Lancashire • ID: 700509 • Level
(26m ago) • 4 readings/hr • 129 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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Current Level
0.721 m
▼ Easing
24h Max
1.100 m
24h Min
0.721 m
Typical Range
0.21 - 2.70
m
Highest Recorded
3.80 m
EA official record
3.91 in our data (since Jan 1976)
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.
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.
18 storm overflows are traced upstream of this gauge, the nearest 3.4 km away along the river. 0 report discharging now, 17 report not discharging, and for 1 the monitor is offline or has not reported, so their status is not known.
United Utilities · into Ransnap Brook · 5.3 km away in a straight line · no mapped watercourse close enough to be sure
0 spills · 0 hours in 2025
Not discharging now · last
5 more within 6 km whose connection is not known.
1 other overflow within 6 km is downstream of this gauge or on another branch of the river network, so it is 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 Croston flood history.
Flood areas linked to this gauge
Flood warnings and alerts are issued for whole areas. These are the 16 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
0.47
mixed response
Avg Annual Rainfall
1,063 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +5% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
15%
partly urbanised
Median Annual Flood
23.01 m³/s
QMED — typical yearly peak flow
Highest Daily Mean Flow
24.00 m³/s
30 Oct 2000 · 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.
Low relief catchment on Boulder Clay which blankets Mercia Mustone, Sherwood Sandstone with Millstone Grit in the extreme east. Isolated hill peat. Land use of mixed farming and substantial urban/suburban development, including the town of Leyland, with many motorways traversing the catchment. No significant catchment changes.
The station
Velocity area station opened 1974. A 3m wide shallow V sheet-piled control was constructed in February 1987. Since 01/01/2009 this has been a level-only station.
How it measures flow
Bridge downstream also acts as partial control. Bypassing has been reported. Site is subject to tidal influence and weed growth, which led to the station downgrade. A permanent cableway was installed to improve gauging at higher flows, but has now been removed. Separate ratings for peak flows applied before and after sheet-piled control in 1987. Current rating gauged to QMED. Two peak flow ratings across period of record.
Flow regime
Low flows are heavily influenced by a sewage treatment works at Leyland.
The flow record
Low and medium flows are not generated. Full period of record peak flow data reviewed and released in August 2024 (WINFAP Files v13).
Timing, not cause. Gauges can move together simply because the same rain fell on both.
Frequently asked questions
Is the River Lostock at Littlewood Bridge flooding today?
The current level is 0.72m, which is within the typical range of 0.21 to 2.70m. Flooding is unlikely at this level.
Is the river level rising or falling at Littlewood Bridge?
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.
What is a normal level for the River Lostock at Littlewood Bridge?
The typical range at this station is 0.21m to 2.70m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 2.70m 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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1983
1983
View of the catchment and recorder hut; looking upstream
Looking d/s from gauging station towards bridge
View of weir looking d/s
View downstream
View upstream