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You'll be notified when this gauge is rising more than 0.10 mASD/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.
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Not an emergency service — if in danger call 999. Alerts rely on
EA/SEPA data and are best-efforts. Terms
Current Level
0.060 mASD
▬ Steady
24h Max
0.063 mASD
24h Min
0.059 mASD
Typical Range
0.02 - 1.14
mASD
Highest Recorded
2.39 mASD
EA official record
2.37 in our data (since Oct 1986)
Current level is 3% of this
🚽Sewage overflows nearby
Recent Water Levels
🌍 floodradar.co.uk
1 day
Flood predictions aren't generated for
lock / structure gauges —
their levels are driven by gate operation,
not by catchment rainfall, so the forecast models would have no skill here.
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.
Downstream level
7 days
The level on the DOWNSTREAM side of this lock/weir structure — a separate EA
measure from the main (upstream) reading shown on the Current tab. Threshold bands
are computed from this gauge's own downstream history.
Long Term
🌍 floodradar.co.uk
—
Consecutive rainy days0 → 10+
Days Above Normal
This year vs 5-year monthly range
Recent Readings
Steady over 6h
24 Aug 00:00▬ steady0.060 mASD
23 Aug 23:45▲ +0.1 cm0.060 mASD
23 Aug 23:30▼ -0.1 cm0.059 mASD
23 Aug 23:15▬ steady0.060 mASD
23 Aug 23:00▬ steady0.060 mASD
23 Aug 22:45▬ steady0.060 mASD
23 Aug 21:30▬ steady0.060 mASD
23 Aug 21:15▬ steady0.060 mASD
23 Aug 21:00▼ -0.1 cm0.060 mASD
23 Aug 20:45▬ steady0.061 mASD
23 Aug 20:30▬ steady0.061 mASD
23 Aug 20:15▬ steady0.061 mASD
23 Aug 20:00▬ steady0.061 mASD
23 Aug 19:45▬ steady0.061 mASD
23 Aug 19:30▬ steady0.061 mASD
23 Aug 19:15▬ steady0.061 mASD
23 Aug 19:00▬ steady0.061 mASD
23 Aug 18:45▬ steady0.061 mASD
23 Aug 18:30▬ steady0.061 mASD
23 Aug 18:150.061 mASD
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 0.4 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 Banbury flood history.
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 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
0.41
mixed response
Avg Annual Rainfall
716 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +2% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
1.6%
largely rural
Median Annual Flood
17.10 m³/s
QMED — typical yearly peak flow
Highest Recorded Flow
49.00 m³/s
21 Jul 2007
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 3%Grassland 45%Arable 46%Urban 6%
Arable 54% → 46% since 1990
Flow affected by: public water supply.
Photos
Gauging-station photographs from the National River Flow Archive (UKCEH).
Asymmetrical compound Crump-type weir within a largely rural catchment that is influenced by abstraction, STWs and the Oxford canal.
More detail
The catchment
A largely impermeable catchment mainly of Liassic formations. Mainly rural but with considerable urban development near the catchment outfall.
The station
Asymmetrical non-standard compound Crump-type weir (crest widths: 3.05m, 8.94m). U/s gradient 1:2; d/s gradient 1:3. Design and built dimensions differ so rating under review. The low flow weir is separated from the wider high flow weir by a vertical steel plate that is supported by metal struts fastened to the rb abutment.
How it measures flow
Modular limit is approximately 22 cumecs (c. 1.1m). Rated by standard compound Crump weir equation using tail levels, pending non-standardisation. D/s tail level monitoring only introduced in 1992 but tail water levels fall below intake pipe (low to medium flows) so only applied at peak flows. Rating is fairly accurate up to modular limit (approx 1.1m). Peak flow flood forecasting rating available, thought to be more accurate than tail water corrections.
Flow regime
A relatively responsive regime but flows influenced by public water supply abstraction and STW. A large u/s abstraction (Grimsbury) can appreciably distort the low flow hydrograph. Sewage effluent also appreciable. Approx. 50 sq.km of the catchment drains directly to the Oxford Canal; some of this runoff returns (via an overfall weir) u/s of Banbury. The flood storage area at Banbury has a capacity of 3 million cubic metres and was completed in 2012. The two outlets are designed to hold the flow at about 2x18 = 36 cumecs until the spillway begins to operate.
The flow record
April 1998 peak estimated at around 90 cumecs (but level exceeded structure-full by c. 1.5m). Flows above 30 cumecs should be treated with caution because of the impact of Banbury flood storage area. Full period of record peak flow data reviewed and released in September 2020 (WINFAP Files v9).
How this gauging station is built and how long it has measured (NRFA / UKCEH).
Gauge type
Gauging structure
Operating since
1966
Station datum
88.7 mAOD
Flow record
1966–2024 · 58 yrs · 98% complete
Peak-flow record
since 1966
Hydrometric area
39
Measured by
Environment Agency
Nearby Groundwater
Soil Moisture
🚽 Storm overflows on this river
Frequently asked questions
Is the River Cherwell at Banbury flooding today?
The current level is 0.06m, which is within the typical range of 0.02 to 1.14m. Flooding is unlikely at this level.
Is the river level rising or falling at Banbury?
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 Cherwell at Banbury?
The typical range at this station is 0.02m to 1.14m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 1.14m 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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Free live river-level widget — ideal for parish councils, angling clubs and local sites. Updates automatically.
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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:
