← Back
1.13

Low Marishes

Derwent
Derwent catchment • Low Marishes • North Yorkshire • ID: F2702 • Level
(21m ago) • 1 reading/hr • 149 views

Set water level alerts

Get notified about Low Marishes — tick as many as you like, they all share the notify settings below.

Unusual rise FloodRadar+Top 1% rise rate for this gauge.
Drag the line on the chart, or type a value: m
Quick pick:

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 data and are best-efforts. Terms

Current Level
1.131 m
▬ Steady
24h Max
1.156 m
24h Min
1.131 m
Typical Range
1.01 - 6.10
m
Highest Recorded
8.67 m
26 Feb 2026
Since Jul 1989
Current level is 13% of this
Current Flow
Loading...
🚽 Sewage overflows nearby

Recent Water Levels

🌍 floodradar.co.uk
1 day

Recent Readings

Falling · -1 cm over 6h
23 Aug 22:45 ▼ -0.2 cm 1.131 m
23 Aug 21:30 ▬ steady 1.133 m
23 Aug 21:15 ▬ steady 1.133 m
23 Aug 21:00 ▬ steady 1.134 m
23 Aug 20:45 ▼ -0.1 cm 1.134 m
23 Aug 20:30 ▬ steady 1.135 m
23 Aug 20:15 ▬ steady 1.136 m
23 Aug 20:00 ▼ -0.1 cm 1.136 m
23 Aug 19:45 ▬ steady 1.137 m
23 Aug 19:30 ▬ steady 1.137 m
23 Aug 19:15 ▬ steady 1.138 m
23 Aug 19:00 ▼ -0.1 cm 1.138 m
23 Aug 18:45 ▬ steady 1.139 m
23 Aug 18:30 ▬ steady 1.139 m
23 Aug 18:15 ▬ steady 1.140 m
23 Aug 18:00 ▼ -0.1 cm 1.140 m
23 Aug 17:45 ▬ steady 1.141 m
23 Aug 17:30 ▬ steady 1.141 m
23 Aug 17:15 ▬ steady 1.141 m
23 Aug 17:00 1.142 m

Rainfall & Weather

Loading rainfall and weather data...

Flood history near this gauge

Official Environment Agency warnings issued since 2012 for the 12 flood areas linked to this gauge (nearest 2.7 km away).

20flood warnings 104flood alerts

Most recent flood warning: 8 Dec 2024River Derwent at Old Malton

Year by year
YearWarningsAlerts
2026 0 10
2025 0 8
2024 3 20
2023 7 18
2022 0 3
2021 3 13
2020 0 6
2019 1 9
2018 1 2
2017 0 3
2016 0 3
2015 2 1
2013 0 2
2012 3 6

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 Low Marishes flood history.

Nearby Stations

Loading nearby stations...

Station Details

  • Station Reference: F2702
  • EA Gauge ID: F2702-level-stage-i-15_min-m
  • Parameter: Level
  • Unit: m
  • Typical rise rate: 1 cm/hr (p95 sustained over 90 days)
  • Typical data delay: ~22 min (measured reading→publication lag)
  • Tidal: No
  • Lock / structure: No
  • Catchment Area: Derwent
  • Typical Range: 1.005 – 6.100 m
  • Drainage Area: 458 km² upstream of this gauge
  • Flow Data: Available (m³/s) via EA Hydrology
  • EA Cross-check: 1.13 m (EA at 23 Aug 22:15)
  • 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

🌊 Groundwater-fed Slow and steady — fed largely by groundwater, so levels change gradually, not in sudden spikes.

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
0.68
groundwater-fed — slow & steady
Avg Annual Rainfall
795 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +6% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
1.0%
largely rural
Median Annual Flood
14.10 m³/s
QMED — typical yearly peak flow
Highest Recorded Flow
27.50 m³/s
9 Nov 2000
Flow-Duration Curve
mean 4.109.623.311.015% (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 23%Grassland 29%Arable 41%Heath/scrub 5%Urban 3%

Flow affected by: public water supply, groundwater abstraction, 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

Electromagnetic gauge replaced with ultrasonic in low gradient channel, affected by backwater from Rye confluence downstream (can even flow backwards at high flows) and diversion of high flows out of upper catchment via Sea Cut.

More detail

The catchment

The catchment drains the eastern part of the North York Moors. Geology: mostly permeable Oolite and Corallian formations, superficial deposits (lacustrine clays) in low-lying areas in south. Largely rural with moorland and wooded headwaters, predominantly arable in lower reaches. No known catchment changes.

The station

Electromagnetic gauge in trapezoidal section with vertical abutments above, 13.5m wide at top water level, provides full range flow measurement. Station was replaced with an ultrasonic gauging station in June 2022.

How it measures flow

Electromagnetic gauge with overhead coil set across old railway bridge abutments. Section has a trapezoidal channel, 8m wide at bed and 13.5m wide at top, with vertical brick abutments above. Weedgrowth in section does not affect the gauge. Confluence with Rye 2.7km d/s leads to significant backwater and can cause flow reversal in flood as Rye peaks earlier than Derwent. Diversion of flood flows from upper catchment via Sea Cut. Early problems with siltation of tapping pipe largely resolved by installation of new pipe at higher level but have occasionally reoccurred. Cableway allows check gauging to high level, 2 highest gaugings around 20% above flow recorded by the gauge but other gaugings are more consistent. No stable stage-discharge relation is possible due to variable backwater, direct flow measured by the gauge is used throughout the range.

Flow regime

Strong baseflow influence on the flow regime; largely natural regime but some losses from spray irrigation in summer and Sea Cut diversion reduces the contributing catchment area by 20% at high flows (measured at 27033).

The flow record

Flow regularly drops to zero ahead of the peak during flood events, thought to be due to higher flow inputs from the Rye pushing back up into the Derwent; the gauge cannot record negative flow and flat lines at zero; peak flows on the Derwent likely to be a combination of catchment runoff and water from the Rye draining back out of storage, the majority of AMAX events affected in this way. Station added to peak flows dataset 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
Ultrasonic
Operating since
1989
Station datum
15.0 mAOD
Flow record
1989–2024 · 35 yrs · 99% complete
Peak-flow record
since 1989
Hydrometric area
27
Measured by
Environment Agency

Frequently asked questions

Is the River Derwent at Low Marishes flooding today?

The current level is 1.13m, which is within the typical range of 1.01 to 6.10m. Flooding is unlikely at this level.

Is the river level rising or falling at Low Marishes?

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 Derwent at Low Marishes?

The typical range at this station is 1.01m to 6.10m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 6.10m 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.

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:

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 →