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⏱ Last reading 6h ago · may be out of date
0.05

Pickering

Pickering Beck
Derwent catchment • Pickering • North Yorkshire • ID: F2517 • Level
(6h ago) • 4 readings/hr • 139 views

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Last Level
0.053 m
⚠ 6h ago · may be out of date
24h Max
0.058 m
24h Min
0.053 m
Typical Range
0.02 - 0.65
m
Highest Recorded
1.98 m
EA official record
1.87 in our data (since Jun 2000)
Current level is 3% of this
🚽 Sewage overflows nearby

Recent Water Levels

🌍 floodradar.co.uk
1 day

Recent Readings

Steady over 5h
23 Aug 18:15 ▬ steady 0.053 m
23 Aug 18:00 ▬ steady 0.053 m
23 Aug 17:45 ▬ steady 0.053 m
23 Aug 17:30 ▬ steady 0.053 m
23 Aug 17:15 ▬ steady 0.053 m
23 Aug 17:00 ▬ steady 0.053 m
23 Aug 16:45 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.053 m
23 Aug 16:30 ▬ steady 0.054 m
23 Aug 16:15 ▲ +0.1 cm 0.054 m
23 Aug 16:00 ▬ steady 0.053 m
23 Aug 15:45 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.053 m
23 Aug 15:30 ▲ +0.1 cm 0.054 m
23 Aug 15:15 ▬ steady 0.053 m
23 Aug 15:00 ▬ steady 0.053 m
23 Aug 14:45 ▬ steady 0.053 m
23 Aug 14:30 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.053 m
23 Aug 14:15 ▲ +0.1 cm 0.054 m
23 Aug 14:00 ▬ steady 0.053 m
23 Aug 13:45 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.053 m
23 Aug 13:30 0.054 m

Rainfall & Weather

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Flood history near this gauge

Official Environment Agency warnings issued since 2012 for the 13 flood areas linked to this gauge (nearest 0.0 km away).

49flood warnings 103flood alerts

Most recent flood warning: 8 Dec 2024Pickering Beck at Pickering

Year by year
YearWarningsAlerts
2026 0 4
2025 0 18
2024 8 19
2023 8 28
2022 1 8
2021 11 17
2020 6 9
2018 2 0
2016 2 0
2015 3 0
2014 1 0
2012 7 0

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 Pickering flood history.

Nearby Stations

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Station Details

  • Monitoring Station: Pickering
  • Watercourse: Pickering Beck
  • Nearest Town: Pickering
  • County: North Yorkshire
  • Coordinates: 54°14'47"N 0°46'42"W (54.246377, -0.778392)
  • Open in: Google Maps · Apple Maps (opens your maps app)
  • Date Opened: 14 Aug 2000
  • Status: Active
  • Station Type: River level station
  • Station Reference: F2517
  • EA Gauge ID: F2517-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: 0.020 – 0.650 m
  • Drainage Area: 66 km² upstream of this gauge
  • Flow Data: Available (m³/s) via EA Hydrology
  • EA Cross-check: 0.05 m (EA at 23 Aug 18:15)
  • 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
0.69
groundwater-fed — slow & steady
Avg Annual Rainfall
917 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +8% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
0.4%
largely rural
Median Annual Flood
7.73 m³/s
QMED — typical yearly peak flow
Land Cover (2023)
Woodland 29%Grassland 32%Arable 19%Heath/scrub 19%Urban 1%

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 draining from the North Yorkshire Moors.

More detail

The catchment

Catchment drains parts of the North York Moors. Geology: mostly grits and Limestones of the Corallian. Mixed rural land use; moorland in headwaters, arable in lower catchment; extensive forestry. Only known catchment changes are flood alleviation measures upstream.

The station

Velocity area station in Pickering. Replaces 27056 for peak flow used only. Station added to peak flows dataset in October 2018 (WINFAP Files v7).

How it measures flow

Velocity area station with open channel control. Rated by gaugings, supported by hydraulic model for high flow extrapolation. Gauged well above QMED and to within 12% of AMAX3. Flows are contained within channel to around 16 cumecs at the gauge section, spills out on the right bank above this but no bypassing and all flow is accounted for by the rating curve. Two peak flow ratings applied across period of record.

Flow regime

Flood alleviation measures upstream since 2015, including a flood storage reservoir with restricted outflow culvert and natural flood management measures (woody debris dams, floodplain tree planting, blocking moorland drains).

The flow record

June 2007 peak is significantly higher than other AMAX events. It is possible this peak was truncated at top of instrument measurement range, although any measurement error is considered to be very small.

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
2000
Station datum
30.9 mAOD
Peak-flow record
since 2000
Hydrometric area
27
Measured by
Environment Agency

Frequently asked questions

Is the Pickering Beck at Pickering flooding today?

The current level is 0.05m, which is within the typical range of 0.02 to 0.65m. Flooding is unlikely at this level.

Is the river level rising or falling at Pickering?

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 Pickering Beck at Pickering?

The typical range at this station is 0.02m to 0.65m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 0.65m 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 →