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⤴Unusual rise — FloodRadar+Top 1% rise rate for this gauge.
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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.
Get notified when recent rainfall near this gauge crosses its learnt rise trigger — an early "watch"
signal, typically hours before a rise. Experimental; not an official flood warning.
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Current Level
0.079 m
▬ Steady
24h Max
0.093 m
24h Min
0.078 m
Typical Range
0.08 - 0.37
m
Highest Recorded
1.34 m
EA official record
1.23 in our data (since Aug 1969)
Current level is 6% 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.
1 storm overflow is traced upstream of this gauge, the nearest 3.5 km away along the river. 0 report discharging now, 1 reports not discharging.
Yorkshire Water · into North Sea · 2.2 km away in a straight line · discharges to the sea, an estuary or tidal water
49 spills · 103 hours in 2025
Status unknown — the live feed has not updated for 9 d 18 h
5 more within 6 km whose connection is not known.
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 →
In a typical year this gauge reaches its typical high of 0.37 m
on about 41 days.
This year so far: 26 days.
202626 days, 4 of them high · 4 highso far
202537 days, 2 of them high · 2 high
202454 days, 9 of them high · 9 high
202359 days, 7 of them high · 7 high
202217 days, 3 of them high · 3 high
202160 days, 7 of them high · 7 high
202039 days, 3 of them high · 3 high
201947 days, 3 of them high · 3 high
201827 days, 3 of them high · 3 high
201726 days, 2 of them high · 2 high
Counted from each day's highest reading. Days with missing or implausible readings are left out.
The darker part is days above 0.74 m, the level this gauge tops only a few days a year.
Flood history near this gauge
Official Environment Agency warnings issued since 2010 for the 7 flood
areas linked to this gauge (nearest 1.6 km away).
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 Scalby Mills flood history.
Flood areas linked to this gauge
Flood warnings and alerts are issued for whole areas. These are the 7 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
0.47
mixed response
Avg Annual Rainfall
813 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +6% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
5.3%
partly urbanised
Median Annual Flood
50.18 m³/s
QMED — typical yearly peak flow
Highest Daily Mean Flow
39.19 m³/s
5 Mar 1999 · 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.
Land Cover (2023)
Woodland 17%Grassland 50%Arable 22%Urban 11%
Arable 26% → 22% since 1990
Flow affected by: reservoir influence.
Photos
Gauging-station photographs from the National River Flow Archive (UKCEH).
Compound broad-crested weir in a diversion channel passing flood waters from the upper Derwent. This means the contributing area varies at high flows.
More detail
The catchment
The natural catchment drains part of the North York Moors. Contributing area varies by +/- 88.8 sq.km because of the artificial connection to the headwaters of the Derwent. Geology of natural catchment is Oolite Cornbrash, Oxford Clays and Corallian of the Jurassic Period, which dip south and are overlain in the east by thick Boulder Clay deposits. No known catchment changes.
The station
Compound broad-crested weir 21m wide with central notch 2.9m wide and crest level of 20.6 mAOD; the flanking weirs are 0.152m higher. A cascade of weirs, making drowning highly unlikely. The channel was artificially extended in the last century. The Sea Cut is primarily a diversion channel which passes flood waters from the upper 88.8 sq.km of the Derwent, although it has a small catchment of its own as well.
How it measures flow
Many springs d/s of the gauge hinder estimation of flow without the Derwent contribution. A sluice allows a maximum of 5 cumecs to flow into the Derwent when fully open, but can be overtopped. Daily flows rated by model tests. One peak flow rating applied across period of record. Good fit to available gaugings at lower flows but recent high flow gaugings suggest rating under-estimates high flows and a rating review is required. Flood Studies Report assumed grade to be A2.
Flow regime
Sea Cut flows are controlled by a sluice; the channel was artificially extended in the 19th century to join the Derwent, and now acts as an overflow channel in high flows.
The flow record
Full period of record peak flow data reviewed and released in September 2019 (WINFAP files v8). The catchment is classified as suitable for Neither QMED nor Pooling, but could be used in local studies after careful analysis of catchment area and other catchment descriptors.
Timing, not cause. Gauges can move together simply because the same rain fell on both.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Sea Cut at Scarborough flooding today?
The current level is 0.08m, which is within the typical range of 0.08 to 0.37m. Flooding is unlikely at this level.
Is the river level rising or falling at Scarborough?
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 Sea Cut at Scarborough?
The typical range at this station is 0.08m to 0.37m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 0.37m 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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