Rother catchment
• South Yorkshire • ID: F0304 • Level
(33m ago) • 4 readings/hr • 152 views
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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
0.508 m
▼ Easing
24h Max
0.540 m
24h Min
0.473 m
Typical Range
0.39 - 2.00
m
Highest Recorded
4.46 m
EA official record
4.46 in our data (since Dec 1974)
Current level is 11% 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 7 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.
84 storm overflows are traced upstream of this gauge, the nearest 1.8 km away along the river. 0 report discharging now, 78 report not discharging, and for 6 the monitor is offline or has not reported, so their status is not known.
Yorkshire Water · into River Rother · 1.8 km away in a straight line · its watercourse is not on the river map
24 spills · 39 hours in 2025
No live feed for this overflow
23 more within 6 km whose connection is not known.
24 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 →
🌊 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
782 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +3% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
13%
partly urbanised
Median Annual Flood
49.88 m³/s
QMED — typical yearly peak flow
Highest Daily Mean Flow
118 m³/s
21 Oct 2023 · 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.
Velocity area station with cableway. Catchment includes former opencast mine Rother Valley Country Park.
More detail
The catchment
Catchment draining the moors and fertile farming valleys southwest of Sheffield. Mixed geology, principally Middle and Lower Coal Measures, with overlying Permian sands, marls and Magnesian Limestone are found down the eastern watershed. Land use: moorland headwaters, mixed farming and heavily urbanised valleys. Extensive urban development of Chesterfield over period of record.
The station
Velocity area station (15m wide) in trapezoidal channel with current meter cableway. Gauge is downstream of a washland storage scheme and catchment has been significantly impacted by opencast mining.
How it measures flow
Large trapezoidal channel with partial control from Orgreave weir 1.2 km downstream. No by-passing but flow is affected by upstream regulator and washland storage scheme, operation of the regulator holds water back during large flood events. Some variability in the rating at low flows, possibly due to seasonal weedgrowth. Channel also affected by modifications from opencast mine remediation and subsidence. Some evidence for lag/drawdown in stilling well in large flood events. Rated by gaugings, two ratings applied across period of record, latest applies from January 1974, although Orgreave weir was breached in June 1973 and repairs not completed until October 1974. Rating based on multipoint current meter gaugings and more recently with ADCP measurements. Flood Studies Report grade B assumed in 1975, now A1 to 2m, A2 to 3m and B above.
Flow regime
Rother Valley Country Park mined by opencast methods, 1976-1981 but restored to become large controlled washlands in 1988. The washlands upstream of Woodhouse Mill are controlled by two in-line river regulators, which results in occasional distortion of the natural hydrograph. These structures have been operated several times during floods (including 2000, 2007, 2012 and 2019) and have a very significant effect on peak flows in the Rother. Abstractions and storage in reservoirs of northeast Derbyshire, Chesterfield, Bolsover and Clowne. Imports from the Derwent Valley reservoirs to Linacre reservoir. Abstractions to water supply from Ogston reservoir. Borehole abstractions made to Crowhole reservoir.
The flow record
Chart records from May 1959 and flow records from October 1961. Sequences of identical low flows in the 1960s (but realistic). Control breached June 1973, repaired October 1974 but PTR found to be faulty and daily flow records not considered reliable until January 1976. Records from 01/1974 reprocessed (1977), earlier records are less reliable. 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 Rother at Woodhouse Mill flooding today?
The current level is 0.51m, which is within the typical range of 0.39 to 2.00m. Flooding is unlikely at this level.
Is the river level rising or falling at Woodhouse Mill?
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. 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 Rother at Woodhouse Mill?
The typical range at this station is 0.39m 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 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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15 Nov 2019 Cableway section in high flow (2.17m stage)
7 Nov 2019 Cableway section in high flow (2.3m stage)
6 Dec 2006 View upstream towards road bridge and regulator (0.88m stage)
6 Dec 2006 Cableway and gauge hut, from left bank (0.88m stage)
25 Mar 2002 View of gauge hut from right bank (0.50 m stage)
Looking u/s towards flood control sluice. Recorder in sluice tower
Section u/s of sluice
View downstream towards cableway section