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0.19

Mitford

Wansbeck
Northumberland Rivers catchment • Mitford • Northumberland • ID: 022007 • Level
(22m ago) • 3 readings/hr • 132 views

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Current Level
0.190 m
▬ Steady
24h Max
0.208 m
24h Min
0.190 m
Typical Range
0.22 - 2.00
m
Highest Recorded
4.07 m
6 Sep 2008
Since Mar 1963
Current level is 5% of this
🚽 Sewage overflows nearby

Recent Water Levels

🌍 floodradar.co.uk
1 day

Recent Readings

Falling · -0.3 cm over 6h
24 Aug 00:30 ▬ steady 0.190 m
24 Aug 00:15 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.190 m
23 Aug 23:45 ▬ steady 0.191 m
23 Aug 23:30 ▬ steady 0.191 m
23 Aug 23:15 ▬ steady 0.191 m
23 Aug 23:00 ▬ steady 0.191 m
23 Aug 22:45 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.191 m
23 Aug 21:30 ▬ steady 0.192 m
23 Aug 21:15 ▬ steady 0.192 m
23 Aug 21:00 ▬ steady 0.192 m
23 Aug 20:45 ▬ steady 0.192 m
23 Aug 20:30 ▬ steady 0.192 m
23 Aug 20:15 ▬ steady 0.192 m
23 Aug 20:00 ▬ steady 0.192 m
23 Aug 19:45 ▬ steady 0.192 m
23 Aug 19:30 ▬ steady 0.192 m
23 Aug 19:15 ▬ steady 0.192 m
23 Aug 19:00 ▬ steady 0.192 m
23 Aug 18:45 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.192 m
23 Aug 18:30 0.193 m

Rainfall & Weather

Loading rainfall and weather data...

Flood history near this gauge

Official Environment Agency warnings issued since 2012 for the 7 flood areas linked to this gauge (nearest 0.9 km away).

17flood warnings 5flood alerts

Most recent flood warning: 20 Oct 2023River Pont at Kirkley Mill, Fox Covert Lane, Darras Hall and Prestwick Carr

Year by year
YearWarningsAlerts
2024 0 1
2023 6 1
2019 1 0
2016 6 0
2013 0 1
2012 4 2

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 Mitford flood history.

Nearby Stations

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Station Details

  • Monitoring Station: Mitford
  • Watercourse: River Wansbeck
  • Nearest Town: Mitford
  • County: Northumberland
  • Nearest reservoir: Fontburn (15.3 km) · 98.5% full (as of 28 Dec 2025)
  • Coordinates: 55°9'58"N 1°43'39"W (55.166194, -1.727617)
  • Open in: Google Maps · Apple Maps (opens your maps app)
  • Date Opened: 1 Jan 1962
  • Status: Active (Data Temporarily Suspended)
  • Station Type: River level station
  • Station Reference: 022007
  • EA Gauge ID: 022007-level-stage-i-15_min-m
  • Parameter: Level
  • Unit: m
  • Typical data delay: ~22 min (measured reading→publication lag)
  • Tidal: No
  • Lock / structure: No
  • Catchment Area: Northumberland Rivers
  • Typical Range: 0.221 – 2.000 m
  • Drainage Area: 287 km² upstream of this gauge
  • Flow Data: Available (m³/s) via EA Hydrology
  • EA Cross-check: 0.19 m (EA at 24 Aug 00:15)
  • 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

🌊 Flashy Rain runs off fast — levels rise and fall sharply, often within hours of heavy rain.

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
0.35
flashy — rain runs off fast
Avg Annual Rainfall
853 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +1% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
0.0%
largely rural
Median Annual Flood
101 m³/s
QMED — typical yearly peak flow
Highest Recorded Flow
225 m³/s
6 Sep 2008
Flow-Duration Curve
mean 3.3612.001.340.2395% (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 19%Grassland 56%Arable 15%Heath/scrub 9%
Arable 20% → 15% since 1990

Flow affected by: surface-water 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

Velocity area station with flat V weir and flume. Record combines data for 22005 and 22007.

More detail

The catchment

A mainly lowland catchment located on moderately permeable Millstone Grit and Upper, Middle and Lower Limestones with extensive boulder clay cover. Around half the catchment is grassland, mixed arable and woodland. No known catchment changes.

The station

Velocity area station. Flat V weir and central flume for low flow measurement (3m wide, overall width 18m) installed 1974, replacing older broad-crested weir also with central flume (located above Tynemouth Corporation intake). Cableway. Just below the station, the channel is confined in deep, steep-sided valley at bend in river. The data series for this station (22007) combines records from Highford (22005) from February 1963, replaced by Mitford from November 1966. In the early period, medium and high flows were measured 0.5 miles downstream at Highford Dam. This had an autographic recorder from February 1963-September 1968, replaced by a punched tape recorder until October 1975. The station was never properly calibrated by gauging, but flows were derived by correlation with Mitford. There was an eel tile installation, central pier extension and fish stilling pool added in 2014.

How it measures flow

Cableway allows for high flow gauging, but wading behind the hut is also necessary at highest levels. Multiple peak flow ratings applied across period of record, the most recent valid from December 1975 post weir modifications. Ratings in good agreement with respective gaugings. Recalibration of upper limb of rating using model has produced slight reduction in flood flows. Flood Studies Rating grade A1.

Flow regime

Font Reservoir impounds 30.3 sq.km of upper catchment on River Font tributary and affects flood flows through drawdown and attenuation. Modest net effect of export from headwater reservoir. Completion of Mitford flood storage dam in April 2015, impounding ~60% of the upstream catchment. This reduces downstream flow in large events, beginning to impact at around 1:25 year return period, with increasingly significant impact on more extreme events. Outflow from the dam is constrained at 150m3/s. The catchment produces sharp hydrographs, but shows a bigger lag than is typical for the area. Northumbrian Water's PWS abstraction at Mitford (just d/s of gauging station) closed by the mid-1990s.

The flow record

Data 17/09/2014-07/10/2014 affected by fish pass installation and eel pass repairs. No AMAX rejected as a result of flood storage dam, but some impact on Jan 2016 event, see event comment. Full period of record peak flow data reviewed and released in September 2020 (WINFAP Files v9). During Storm Babet 20/10/2023 a tree became lodged in the weir and remained, stage data elevated above true conditions as a result. This is most noticeable in lower flows.

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
Gauging structure
Operating since
1968
Station datum
31.4 mAOD
Flow record
1968–2024 · 56 yrs · 100% complete
Peak-flow record
since 1966
Hydrometric area
22
Measured by
Environment Agency

Frequently asked questions

Is the River Wansbeck at Mitford flooding today?

The current level is 0.19m, which is below the typical range. Flooding is very unlikely at this level.

Is the river level rising or falling at Mitford?

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 Wansbeck at Mitford?

The typical range at this station is 0.22m to 2.00m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 2.00m 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:

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