Get notified about Wheatley — tick as many as you like, they all share the notify settings below.
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⤴Unusual rise — FloodRadar+Top 1% rise rate for this gauge.
Height for "Above a height"
Drag the line on the chart, or type a value:mASD
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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.
Beta. You'll be notified when a flood wave detected at an upstream gauge is forecast to reach this station, with an estimated arrival time. Accuracy improves as we verify more waves.
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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On iPhone: tap Share → Add to Home Screen first, then open it from there and set the alert. Show me how
Each one is saved as its own alert — pause or remove them individually any time.
Not an emergency service — if in danger call 999. Alerts rely on
EA/SEPA/NRW data and are best-efforts. Terms
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 23 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.
7 storm overflows are traced upstream of this gauge, the nearest 10.6 km away along the river. 0 report discharging now, 6 report not discharging, and for 1 the monitor is offline or has not reported, so their status is not known.
Thames Water · into Worminghallbrook · 5.6 km away in a straight line · its recorded watercourse is not the one mapped beside it
23 spills · 264 hours in 2025
Not discharging now · last
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. Sewage & storm overflows →
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 Wheatley flood history.
Flood areas linked to this gauge
Flood warnings and alerts are issued for whole areas. These are the 5 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
0.49
mixed response
Avg Annual Rainfall
669 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +1% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
3.6%
partly urbanised
Highest Daily Mean Flow
68.10 m³/s
3 Jan 2003 · 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.
Located on the River Thame at Wheatley the ultrasonic gauging station superseded the upstream station at Shabbington (39038).
More detail
The catchment
The Thame drains a typical clay (principally Oxford Clay, some Greensand also) vale NW of the Chiltern escarpment. Land use is largely agricultural (considerable grassland) while the urban areas within the catchment include the town is Aylesbury.
The station
Multi-path US (cross- configuration).
How it measures flow
Full range, railway embankment ensures no bypassing. Skewed flow, weed-growth and summer temperature gradients can limit accuracy particularly at low flows (e.g. early autumn 2009).
Flow regime
Some spring flow contribution but responsive regime. Net import of water; sewage effluent is a significant component of low flows.
The flow record
Approximately 80 cumecs gauged in 01/2003. Flows in August 2017 affected by weed growth. Missing data in December 2019 due to station upgrade works.
Timing, not cause. Gauges can move together simply because the same rain fell on both.
Frequently asked questions
Is the River Thame at Wheatley flooding today?
The current level is 4.49m, which is within the typical range of 3.60 to 5.75m. Flooding is unlikely at this level.
Is the river level rising or falling at Wheatley?
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 River Thame at Wheatley?
The typical range at this station is 3.60m to 5.75m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 5.75m 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.
Embed this gauge on your website
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:
FloodRadar
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