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0.18

Tadcaster

Wharfe
Wharfe and Lower Ouse catchment • Tadcaster • North Yorkshire • ID: F2002 • Level
(36m ago) • 3 readings/hr • 275 views

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Current Level
0.177 m
▬ Steady
24h Max
0.193 m
24h Min
0.173 m
Typical Range
0.18 - 2.50
m
Highest Recorded
4.83 m
1 May 2025
Since Jun 1991
Current level is 4% of this
Current Flow
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🚽 Sewage overflows nearby

Recent Water Levels

🌍 floodradar.co.uk
1 day

Recent Readings

Falling · -0.8 cm over 6h
23 Aug 23:15 ▼ -0.4 cm 0.177 m
23 Aug 23:00 ▬ steady 0.181 m
23 Aug 22:45 ▬ steady 0.181 m
23 Aug 21:30 ▬ steady 0.181 m
23 Aug 21:15 ▬ steady 0.181 m
23 Aug 21:00 ▬ steady 0.181 m
23 Aug 20:45 ▬ steady 0.181 m
23 Aug 20:30 ▬ steady 0.181 m
23 Aug 20:15 ▬ steady 0.181 m
23 Aug 20:00 ▬ steady 0.181 m
23 Aug 19:45 ▼ -0.4 cm 0.181 m
23 Aug 19:30 ▲ +0.4 cm 0.185 m
23 Aug 19:15 ▼ -0.4 cm 0.181 m
23 Aug 19:00 ▬ steady 0.185 m
23 Aug 18:45 ▬ steady 0.185 m
23 Aug 18:30 ▬ steady 0.185 m
23 Aug 18:15 ▬ steady 0.185 m
23 Aug 18:00 ▬ steady 0.185 m
23 Aug 17:45 ▬ steady 0.185 m
23 Aug 17:30 0.185 m

Rainfall & Weather

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Flood history near this gauge

Official Environment Agency warnings issued since 2011 for the 17 flood areas linked to this gauge (nearest 1.3 km away).

1severe warning 50flood warnings 16flood alerts

Most recent flood warning: 29 Dec 2023River Wharfe at Ryther

Year by year
YearSevereWarningsAlerts
2025 0 0 1
2024 0 0 2
2023 0 2 7
2022 0 9 1
2021 0 2 3
2020 0 3 2
2019 0 3 0
2016 0 2 0
2015 1 17 0
2013 0 1 0
2012 0 10 0
2011 0 1 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 Tadcaster flood history.

Nearby Stations

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Station Details

  • Monitoring Station: Tadcaster
  • Watercourse: River Wharfe
  • Nearest Town: Tadcaster
  • County: North Yorkshire
  • Nearest reservoir: Eccup Esr (17.0 km) · 60.3% full (as of 10 Aug 2026)
  • Coordinates: 53°53'27"N 1°16'33"W (53.890881, -1.275696)
  • Open in: Google Maps · Apple Maps (opens your maps app)
  • Date Opened: 27 Jun 1991
  • Status: Active
  • Station Type: River level station
  • Station Reference: F2002
  • EA Gauge ID: F2002-level-stage-i-15_min-m
  • Parameter: Level
  • Unit: m
  • Typical rise rate: 4 cm/hr (p95 sustained over 90 days)
  • Typical data delay: ~22 min (measured reading→publication lag)
  • Tidal: No
  • Lock / structure: No
  • Catchment Area: Wharfe and Lower Ouse
  • Typical Range: 0.177 – 2.500 m
  • Drainage Area: 818 km² upstream of this gauge
  • Flow Data: Available (m³/s) via EA Hydrology
  • EA Cross-check: 0.18 m (EA at 23 Aug 23:15)
  • 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

🌊 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
0.42
mixed response
Avg Annual Rainfall
1,211 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +6% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
1.8%
largely rural
Median Annual Flood
215 m³/s
QMED — typical yearly peak flow
Highest Recorded Flow
374 m³/s
26 Dec 2015
Flow-Duration Curve
mean 17.9261.309.362.865% (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 7%Grassland 57%Arable 7%Heath/scrub 24%Urban 4%Other 1%
Grassland 53% → 57% since 1990

Flow affected by: surface-water abstraction, reservoir influence, public water supply, 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

Multi-path ultrasonic station. Early problems with siltation. Originally intended to replace 27002 but poor early performance meant both stations still open.

More detail

The catchment

Mainly Carboniferous Limestone, grits and Coal Measures, some Magnesian Limestone above Tadcaster. Signifcant outcrops of Boulder Clay and some alluvial deposits in valleys. Largely rural catchment - moorland, Pennine headwaters, arable farming and some urban development in the lower catchment. No known catchment changes.

The station

Multi-path ultrasonic gauging station (cross configuration) installed in 1990 just u/s of tidal limit of the Wharfe. Bed scouring during 1991 flood necessitated recalibration. Initial problems with sand deposition due to over-wide channel. 27089 planned to replace 27002 (Flint Mill) but both stations have been retained. Cableway moved to here from Wetherby.

How it measures flow

Only known bypass in Dec 2015 event, although does regularly overtop the banks d/s. Attenuation of ultrasonic signal can be a problem in summer due to low velocity and thermal stratification of river. Rating for infilling gaps in ultrasonic data revised in 2014 and is used as a backup only. At peak flows (>150 cumecs) data are verified by current metering and a rating curve is sometimes applied in preference to the ultrasonic data; station rated excellent for high flow measurement.

Flow regime

Regulation effect of headwater reservoirs evident at low flows, small net export of water.

The flow record

Low flows in May-June 2008, due to issues with Ultrasonic equipment, were infilled from the rating but should be treated with caution. Rating used to infill ultrasonic data gaps revised in 2014 and slightly increases low flows and decreases high flows by 10-15%. Full period of record peak flow data reviewed and released in September 2019 (WINFAP Files v8).

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
1991
Station datum
6.6 mAOD
Flow record
1991–2024 · 33 yrs · 100% complete
Peak-flow record
since 1991
Hydrometric area
27
Measured by
Environment Agency

Frequently asked questions

Is the River Wharfe at Tadcaster flooding today?

The current level is 0.18m, which is within the typical range of 0.18 to 2.50m. Flooding is unlikely at this level.

Is the river level rising or falling at Tadcaster?

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.

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. Only about 0.0mm of rain has fallen nearby in the last 7 days, so the flow is being sustained mainly by groundwater. 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 Wharfe at Tadcaster?

The typical range at this station is 0.18m to 2.50m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 2.50m 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 →