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0.23

Blue Bridge

Darwen
Ribble Douglas and Crossens catchment • Walton-Le-Dale • Lancashire • ID: 713122 • Level
(32m ago) • 2 readings/hr • 113 views

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Current Level
0.230 m
▬ Steady
24h Max
0.236 m
24h Min
0.229 m
Typical Range
0.27 - 2.43
m
Highest Recorded
3.91 m
16 Mar 2013
Since Jan 1976
Current level is 6% of this
🚽 Sewage overflows nearby

Recent Water Levels

🌍 floodradar.co.uk
1 day

Recent Readings

Falling · -0.2 cm over 6h
23 Aug 23:00 ▬ steady 0.230 m
23 Aug 22:45 ▬ steady 0.230 m
23 Aug 21:30 ▬ steady 0.230 m
23 Aug 21:15 ▬ steady 0.230 m
23 Aug 21:00 ▬ steady 0.230 m
23 Aug 20:45 ▬ steady 0.230 m
23 Aug 20:30 ▬ steady 0.230 m
23 Aug 20:15 ▬ steady 0.230 m
23 Aug 20:00 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.230 m
23 Aug 19:45 ▬ steady 0.231 m
23 Aug 19:30 ▬ steady 0.231 m
23 Aug 19:15 ▬ steady 0.231 m
23 Aug 19:00 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.231 m
23 Aug 18:45 ▬ steady 0.232 m
23 Aug 18:30 ▬ steady 0.232 m
23 Aug 18:15 ▬ steady 0.232 m
23 Aug 18:00 ▬ steady 0.232 m
23 Aug 17:45 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.232 m
23 Aug 17:30 ▲ +0.1 cm 0.233 m
23 Aug 17:15 0.232 m

Rainfall & Weather

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Flood history near this gauge

Official Environment Agency warnings issued since 2006 for the 20 flood areas linked to this gauge (nearest 0.6 km away).

69flood warnings 153flood alerts

Most recent flood warning: 20 Sep 2025River Ribble at Samlesbury, around Brockholes Reserve and Lower Brockholes

Year by year
YearWarningsAlerts
2025 4 5
2024 7 17
2023 3 9
2022 2 2
2021 6 7
2020 16 13
2019 5 9
2018 1 3
2017 0 4
2016 0 6
2015 16 13
2014 3 2
2013 1 3
2012 5 15
2011 0 4
2010 0 10
2009 0 5
2008 0 8
2007 0 14
2006 0 4

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.

Nearby Stations

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Station Details

  • Monitoring Station: Blue Bridge
  • Watercourse: River Darwen
  • Nearest Town: Walton-Le-Dale
  • County: Lancashire
  • Coordinates: 53°44'40"N 2°39'41"W (53.744555, -2.661500)
  • Open in: Google Maps · Apple Maps (opens your maps app)
  • Date Opened: 1 Jan 1975
  • Status: Active
  • Station Type: River level station
  • Station Reference: 713122
  • EA Gauge ID: 713122-level-stage-i-15_min-m
  • Parameter: Level
  • Unit: m
  • Typical rise rate: 9 cm/hr (p95 sustained over 90 days)
  • Typical data delay: ~22 min (measured reading→publication lag)
  • Tidal: No
  • Lock / structure: No
  • Catchment Area: Ribble Douglas and Crossens
  • Typical Range: 0.273 – 2.430 m
  • Drainage Area: 128 km² upstream of this gauge
  • Flow Data: Available (m³/s) via EA Hydrology
  • EA Cross-check: 0.23 m (EA at 23 Aug 22:45)
  • Flow Archive: National River Flow Archive ↗

Geographic coordinates may reflect the access point for the gauge, and not the precise location in the watercourse that it is taking readings from.

Catchment Character

🌊 Fairly flashy Responds 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 Recorded Flow
102 m³/s
22 Jun 2012
Flow-Duration Curve
mean 3.9412.302.281.125% (high)% of days exceeded95% (low)
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.
Land Cover (2023)
Woodland 9%Grassland 54%Arable 3%Heath/scrub 9%Urban 25%Other 1%
Grassland 59% → 54% since 1990

Flow affected by: public water supply, effluent returns, industrial / agricultural abstraction.

Photos

Gauging-station photographs from the National River Flow Archive (UKCEH).

Photos © NRFA / UKCEH & the measuring authority — shown at web resolution. Full gallery on the NRFA ↗

About this gauge

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).

Descriptions from the National River Flow Archive (UKCEH). NRFA station record ↗

Gauge Details

How this gauging station is built and how long it has measured (NRFA / UKCEH).

Gauge type
Velocity–area
Operating since
1974
Station datum
8.1 mAOD
Flow record
1976–2020 · 44 yrs · 99% complete
Peak-flow record
since 1974
Hydrometric area
71
Measured by
Environment Agency

Frequently asked questions

Is the River Darwen at Blue Bridge flooding today?

The current level is 0.23m, 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 7 days of measurements, 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 taken by the Environment Agency gauge roughly every 15 minutes and FloodRadar refreshes its data continuously, so the level shown is normally less than an hour old.

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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:

Check any UK postcode’s flood risk →

🏠 Buying or renting around here? Get the Property Flood-Risk Report for any English postcode — official risk band, floods since 1946, warning history, river behaviour and nearby storm overflows. £19 one-off. Learn more →