Nene catchment
• Great Harrowden • North Northamptonshire • ID: E2662 • Level
(21m ago) • 4 readings/hr • 138 views
Set water level alerts
Get notified about Harrowden — tick as many as you like, they all share the notify settings below.
Alert me when (tick one or more)
⤴Unusual rise — FloodRadar+Top 1% rise rate for this gauge.
Height for "Above a height"
Drag the line on the chart, or type a value:m
Quick pick:
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.
Notify by (tick one or more)
Your browser will ask permission, then you'll get a notification even when FloodRadar isn't open.
On iPhone: tap Share → Add to Home Screen first, then open it from there and set the alert. Show me how
Each one is saved as its own alert — pause or remove them individually any time.
Not an emergency service — if in danger call 999. Alerts rely on
EA/SEPA/NRW data and are best-efforts. Terms
Current Level
0.162 m
▼ Easing
24h Max
0.226 m
24h Min
0.162 m
Typical Range
0.13 - 1.17
m
Highest Recorded
1.61 m
EA official record
1.58 in our data (since Mar 1981)
Current level is 10% 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 8 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.
18 storm overflows are traced upstream of this gauge, the nearest 3.4 km away along the river. 0 report discharging now, 16 report not discharging, and for 2 the monitor is offline or has not reported, so their status is not known.
Anglian Water · into Unknown · 3.3 km away in a straight line · no mapped watercourse close enough to be sure
2 spills · 1 hours in 2025
Not discharging now · last
6 more within 6 km whose connection is not known.
17 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 Harrowden flood history.
Flood areas linked to this gauge
Flood warnings and alerts are issued for whole areas. These are the 3 areas linked to this gauge, nearest first.
🌊 Mixed responseA balance of quick runoff and slower groundwater baseflow.
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
0.54
mixed response
Avg Annual Rainfall
685 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +9% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
6.3%
partly urbanised
Median Annual Flood
15.06 m³/s
QMED — typical yearly peak flow
Highest Daily Mean Flow
35.90 m³/s
10 Apr 1998 · 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.
Site with several different structures installed throughout POR, gauging a rural catchment with mixed geology and some artificial influences.
More detail
The catchment
Underlain by clay and sandstone, nearly half covered with superficial deposits, mainly in higher areas on catchment margins. Predominantly rural catchment of mixed farming, but includes Kettering in lower catchment.
The station
A weir existed already in 1936, so a rectangular notch was cut in in Oct 1936. In Jun-Dec 1943, the rectangular notch was replaced by a flume with low flow notch and the bypass channel was straightened. In 1964, this flume was replaced by a compound Crump weir (its construction. Finally, in 1976, a flat V weir with 5.15m crest was constructed.
How it measures flow
Considerable flood plain flow above bankfull. Crump weir was modular to 15.6 cumecs (but bypassed at 14.2 cumecs). Flat V is also bypassed. Multiple ratings for various structures applied across period of record, the most recent is valid from April-1976 (flat V) and accounts for the bypassing. 1943-1965 rating considered unreliable above 1.6m, 1965-1976 rating unreliable above 1.39m.
Flow regime
Two small storage reservoirs with minor influence on low flows; receives Kettering effluent.
The flow record
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 Ise at Harrowden flooding today?
The current level is 0.16m, which is within the typical range of 0.13 to 1.17m. Flooding is unlikely at this level.
Is the river level rising or falling at Harrowden?
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.
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 Ise at Harrowden?
The typical range at this station is 0.13m to 1.17m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 1.17m 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.
Embed this gauge on your website
Free live river-level widget — ideal for parish councils, angling clubs and local sites. Updates automatically.
Preview
📮 Flood risk by postcode near this gauge
Postcodes within 5 km with properties in the Environment Agency’s rivers-and-sea flood-risk bands:
FloodRadar
Log inCreate free account
