Don and Rother catchment
• Harlington • South Yorkshire • ID: F0803 • Level
(1h ago) • 4 readings/hr • 129 views
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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.
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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Current Level
0.237 m
▼ Easing
24h Max
0.283 m
24h Min
0.189 m
Typical Range
0.21 - 2.12
m
Highest Recorded
2.77 m
EA official record
A 3.91 reading (16 Mar 2013) sits in our unverified raw history and is not treated as the record
Current level is 9% of this
🚽Sewage overflows nearby
Recent Water Levels
🌍 floodradar.co.uk
1 day
EA forecast (official)
Prediction V2
Prediction Eris
Nimbus beta
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 6 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.
67 storm overflows are traced upstream of this gauge, the nearest 2.1 km away along the river. 0 report discharging now, 64 report not discharging, and for 3 the monitor is offline or has not reported, so their status is not known.
Yorkshire Water · into Not Matched In Ea Consents Database · 1.5 km away in a straight line · several watercourses close by, nothing to choose between them
Yorkshire Water · into Brook Dike/River Dearne · 3.3 km away in a straight line · its recorded watercourse is not the one mapped beside it
27 spills · 361 hours in 2025
Not discharging now · last
8 more within 6 km whose connection is not known.
17 other overflows within 6 km are downstream of this gauge or on another branch of the river network, so they are not listed.
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. Explore the sewage map →
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 Harlington flood history.
Flood areas linked to this gauge
Flood warnings and alerts are issued for whole areas. These are the 13 areas linked to this gauge, nearest first.
🌊 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
0.53
mixed response
Avg Annual Rainfall
727 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +3% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
11%
partly urbanised
Median Annual Flood
42.06 m³/s
QMED — typical yearly peak flow
Highest Daily Mean Flow
72.70 m³/s
8 Nov 2019 · 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.
Crump profile weir in a heavily urbanised and industrialised catchment. Flow regime controlled by washlands since the gradual closure of mines.
More detail
The catchment
Geology: primarily Carboniferous Coal Measures. Lower Coal Measures dip gently east northeast under more extensive Middle Coal Measures. Shales, overlain by alluvium. Land use: arable farming and moorland pasture in the headwaters. Significant urban development in middle reaches and valleys, including Barnsely. Coal mining and subsequent subsidence of land. Decline of coal mining and manufacturing industries throughout the period of record. Barnsley's growing population (and thereby development) peaked with the mining economy in 1971 (a quarter of Barnsley's population of Barnsley worked in mining by 1981). All mines were closed by 1994 with population decline since. The death of the industry left a legacy of abandoned deep mining pits and opencast coalmines, their associated spoil tips and mine works.
The station
Compound Crump weir with broad-crested flanks built 1963, total width 17.4m, 400m d/s of Adwick Bridge. Cableway located 25m upstream of weir. Fish pass installed June 2013.
How it measures flow
Compound weir with central Crump profile section 5.5m wide, broad-crested flanking weirs with crests 0.4m higher than central weir, sloping side walls and no divide piers. No known bypassing, flow contained by raised embankments, however site is subject to variable back-water from the river Don confluence downstream in large flood events. Problems with draw down effect in stilling well were remedied in 1968. Weir possibly subject to mining subsidence. Rating developed from Crump formula modified to fit to check gaugings at cableway 25m upstream. Rating revised in 2016 to account for drowning / variable backwater but considerable scatter in gaugings above 1.2m stage. Separate level record and rating for fish pass (installed 2013) with flow added to weir flow to calculate total flow. Flood Studies Report grade A2 to 1.4m then B for straight-line extrapolation.
Flow regime
Abstraction to supply from Scout Dike reservoir group and Midhope reservoirs in the Don, discharged to Dearne. Reservoir influence from Worsborough and Bretton Lakes draining around 20% of the catchment. Moderately heavy industrialisation, mine drainage, sewage effluent augmentation and net import of water from Don. Hydrological characteristics altered by surface works and groundwater rebound in response to mine water pumping. The construction of washlands in the Dearne catchment has been an ongoing activity since the gradual closure of mines. Some of the washlands are controlled by two structures: A river regulator at Bolton (upstream of Adwick) and a side sluice gate at Dearne Mouth (downstream). Uncontrolled washlands operate at flows from QMED upwards, the sluice and regulator are operated only in major flood events.
The flow record
Continuous level data from 1961. Flow data from November 1963 but data pre-1975 is thought to be less reliable. Post-1975 flows reprocessed in 1996 (low flows reduced, high flows increased) and again in 2016 (high flows reduced). Major flood events affected by backwater, allowed for in rating but with considerable uncertainty above 1.2m stage (40 cumecs). Increased flows 02/12/2013-05/12/2013 a result on contractors working on site affecting the water level. Data marked as estimated. Full period of record peak flow data reviewed and released in August 2021 (WINFAP Files v10).
Timing, not cause. Gauges can move together simply because the same rain fell on both.
Frequently asked questions
Is the River Dearne at Adwick flooding today?
The current level is 0.24m, which is within the typical range of 0.21 to 2.12m. Flooding is unlikely at this level.
Is the river level rising or falling at Adwick?
Based on the most recent readings, the level is currently falling slightly. The chart above shows the last 12 hours of measurements by default (up to 7 days), 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 4.3mm 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 Dearne at Adwick?
The typical range at this station is 0.21m to 2.12m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 2.12m 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.
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4 Jun 2014 View downstream towards weir
4 Jun 2014 View upstream towards weir, fish pass on left
4 Jun 2014 View of weir and fish pass from R bank
9 Jul 2013 View upstream from left bank showing weir and fish pass
9 Jul 2013 View downstream from left bank showing new fish pass
6 Jan 2008 View of drowned weir in high flow
Gauging section and weir seen from u/s
Weir and stage board
Recorder hut and weir looking u/s from R bank
Weir looking downstream from right bank
Cableway hut
View upstream towards cableway