Ribble Douglas and Crossens catchment
• Great Mitton • Lancashire • ID: 710305 • Level
(33m ago) • 4 readings/hr • 291 views
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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
1.382 m
▼ Falling (-5cm/hr)
24h Max
1.507 m
24h Min
0.594 m
Typical Range
0.33 - 2.50
m
Highest Recorded
3.70 m
EA official record
3.70 in our data (since Jan 1976)
Current level is 37% 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.
26 storm overflows are traced upstream of this gauge, the nearest 1.5 km away along the river. 3 report discharging now, 23 report not discharging.
United Utilities · into Stream Trib Bushburn Brook · 4.5 km away in a straight line · no mapped watercourse close enough to be sure
15 spills · 122 hours in 2025
Not discharging now · last
7 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 Great Mitton 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.
🌊 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
0.37
mixed response
Avg Annual Rainfall
1,437 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +7% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
1.5%
largely rural
Median Annual Flood
224 m³/s
QMED — typical yearly peak flow
Highest Daily Mean Flow
282 m³/s
27 Oct 1980 · 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, insensitive at low flows. Gauges a predominantly limestone catchment which drains the Yorkshire Dales.
More detail
The catchment
Geology mainly Carboniferous Limestone overlain by Boulder Clay in valleys with intermittent Millstone Grit. The northern half of the catchment lies in the Yorkshire Dales National Park. Predominantly rural catchment with mixed farming and several small towns; moorland in the upper catchment. No significant catchment changes.
The station
Compound broad-crested weir, low notch 3.8m wide, flanking crests each 10.3m wide and 0.3m higher. Superseded, in August 1968, the original velocity area station which had been opened in 1960 and a bed control added May 1965 to improve calibration.
How it measures flow
Weir drowns at high flows, and insensitive at low flow due to its breadth. Algal build-up and leaks affect low flows. No bypassing reported. Cableway until 1988 and from 1997. Single peak flow rating applied to period of record from 1968 derived from current meter gaugings. Hydraulic model used to extend beyond gauged range.
Flow regime
Largely natural runoff pattern. Minor abstractions and effluent discharges.
The flow record
Peak flows are presented only from the broad-crested weir, from 1968. Full period of record peak flow data reviewed and released in September 2019 (WINFAP Files v8).
Timing, not cause. Gauges can move together simply because the same rain fell on both.
Frequently asked questions
Is the River Ribble at Henthorn flooding today?
The current level is 1.38m, which is within the typical range of 0.33 to 2.50m. Flooding is unlikely at this level.
Is the river level rising or falling at Henthorn?
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.
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 Ribble at Henthorn?
The typical range at this station is 0.33m to 2.50m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 2.50m 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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18 Jan 2007 Upstream view
18 Jan 2007
Recorder hut and cableway
View of the channel and weir looking u/s from L bank
View of the channel; catchment looking d/s from L bank
Weir structure looking across from recorder hut on L bank