Ribble Douglas and Crossens catchment
• Walton-Le-Dale • Lancashire • ID: 713122 • Level
(1h ago) • 4 readings/hr • 133 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
0.246 m
▬ Steady
24h Max
0.269 m
24h Min
0.232 m
Typical Range
0.27 - 2.43
m
Highest Recorded
3.31 m
EA official record
A 3.91 reading (16 Mar 2013) sits in our unverified raw history and is not treated as the record
Current level is 7% 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.
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.
48 storm overflows are traced upstream of this gauge, the nearest 1.4 km away along the river. 0 report discharging now, 46 report not discharging, and for 2 the monitor is offline or has not reported, so their status is not known.
United Utilities · into River Ribble Via Storm Culvert · 1.5 km away in a straight line · discharges into a tidal reach, where the water moves both ways
United Utilities · into Storm Culvert Into R Ribble · 1.5 km away in a straight line · discharges into a tidal reach, where the water moves both ways
0 spills · 0 hours in 2025
Not discharging now
49 more within 6 km whose connection is not known.
2 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 Walton-Le-Dale flood history.
Flood areas linked to this gauge
Flood warnings and alerts are issued for whole areas. These are the 20 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
1,239 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +7% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
14%
partly urbanised
Median Annual Flood
90.53 m³/s
QMED — typical yearly peak flow
Highest Daily Mean Flow
102 m³/s
22 Jun 2012 · 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.
Velocity area station; some bypassing on both banks during extreme events.
More detail
The catchment
Glacial clays and gravels blanket Coal Measures and Millstone Grit with Sherwood Sandstone near the gauge. Upper catchment almost wholly urbanised (Blackburn, Darwen); agricultural in lower half. No significant catchment changes.
The station
A rated velocity area station, opened 1974. Ultrasonics (4 cross-paths) from July 1997 until January 2014.
How it measures flow
Main control is an old mill weir 370m downstream, which was modified in 1974 into a V profile. During extreme events the station is bypassed on the left and right banks - modelling confirms that this is not a large percentage of the total flow. Uneven bed profile can affect accuracy of low flows. Rating derived from gaugings, supported by ultrasonics, with a modelled top-end. Historically high flow gaugings were carried out from a footbridge just downstream of the site but are now undertaken using an ADCP just upstream of the station. One rating applied to period of record. A fish pass was installed at the downstream weir on 27th July 2020 leading to a significant drop in water levels at the gauging station.
Flow regime
Low flows heavily influenced by effluent discharges.
The flow record
Ultrasonics (1997-2015) often cut out at the higher flows. Daily mean flows not held after installation of fish pass on control weir (29/07/2020), pending review of low flow rating. Full period of record peak flow data reviewed and released in September 2022 (WINFAP Files v11).
Timing, not cause. Gauges can move together simply because the same rain fell on both.
Frequently asked questions
Is the River Darwen at Blue Bridge flooding today?
The current level is 0.25m, which is below the typical range. Flooding is very unlikely at this level.
Is the river level rising or falling at Blue Bridge?
Based on the most recent readings, the level is currently steady. 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 Darwen at Blue Bridge?
The typical range at this station is 0.27m to 2.43m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 2.43m 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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21 Jan 2008
21 Jan 2008
1983
1983
1983
View of the Ultransonic station; looking d/s from L bank
Stage = 2.7m; Gauged at 130 cumecs by ADVP
