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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 mASD/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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EA/SEPA data and are best-efforts. Terms
Current Level
6.660 mASD
▬ Steady
24h Max
6.679 mASD
24h Min
6.656 mASD
Typical Range
6.58 - 7.00
mASD
Highest Recorded
7.54 mASD
7 Jan 2024
Since Sep 1992
Current level is 88% of this
Current Flow
Loading...
🚽Sewage overflows nearby
Recent Water Levels
🌍 floodradar.co.uk
1 day
Prediction V2
Prediction Eris
Nimbus beta
Experimental model fusing soil moisture, river flow, groundwater and catchment
character. Shown with its calibrated 10–90% confidence band. 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.
Long Term
🌍 floodradar.co.uk
—
Consecutive rainy days0 → 10+
Days Above Normal
This year vs 5-year monthly range
Recent Readings
Steady over 5h
23 Aug 21:30▲ +0.1 cm6.660 mASD
23 Aug 21:15▬ steady6.659 mASD
23 Aug 21:00▲ +0.1 cm6.658 mASD
23 Aug 20:45▼ -0.2 cm6.657 mASD
23 Aug 20:30▲ +0.2 cm6.659 mASD
23 Aug 20:15▬ steady6.657 mASD
23 Aug 20:00▼ -0.1 cm6.657 mASD
23 Aug 19:45▬ steady6.658 mASD
23 Aug 19:30▬ steady6.659 mASD
23 Aug 19:15▬ steady6.658 mASD
23 Aug 19:00▬ steady6.658 mASD
23 Aug 18:45▼ -0.2 cm6.659 mASD
23 Aug 18:30▬ steady6.661 mASD
23 Aug 18:15▲ +0.1 cm6.660 mASD
23 Aug 18:00▼ -0.4 cm6.659 mASD
23 Aug 17:45▲ +0.3 cm6.663 mASD
23 Aug 17:30▼ -0.7 cm6.660 mASD
23 Aug 17:15▲ +0.4 cm6.667 mASD
23 Aug 17:00▲ +0.4 cm6.663 mASD
23 Aug 16:306.659 mASD
Rainfall & Weather
Loading rainfall and weather data...
Flood history near this gauge
Official Environment Agency warnings issued since 2008 for the 16 flood
areas linked to this gauge (nearest 1.0 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 Reading 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
🌊 Mixed responseA balance of quick runoff and slower groundwater baseflow.
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
0.64
mixed response
Avg Annual Rainfall
732 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +4% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
3.0%
largely rural
Highest Recorded Flow
302 m³/s
4 Jan 2003
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.
Flow affected by: public water supply, groundwater abstraction.
About this gauge
Ultrasonic gauging station located on the main river channel under Reading Bridge.
More detail
The catchment
Mixed geology with Cotswold headwaters (Oolitic L'st) and Oxford Clay. The land use is predominantly rural but with important, and growing, urban development in the valley (i.e. Oxford and Reading).
The station
Multi-path cross-configuration US sited beneath Reading Bridge (incorporates adjustment for flows outside the transducer piers).
How it measures flow
Very minor bypassing via Gosbrook stream. Good c/m confirmation of calibration throughout the range.
How this gauging station is built and how long it has measured (NRFA / UKCEH).
Gauge type
Ultrasonic
Operating since
1992
Station datum
30.0 mAOD
Flow record
1992–2024 · 32 yrs · 100% complete
Hydrometric area
39
Measured by
Environment Agency
Nearby Groundwater
Soil Moisture
Possible storm-overflow correlation
🚽 Storm overflows on this river
Frequently asked questions
Is the River Thames at Reading flooding today?
The current level is 6.66m, which is within the typical range of 6.58 to 7.00m. Flooding is unlikely at this level.
Is the river level rising or falling at Reading?
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 Thames at Reading?
The typical range at this station is 6.58m to 7.00m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 7.00m 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:
