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0.11

Rocester

Dove
Dove catchment • Rocester • Staffordshire • ID: 4008 • Level
(35m ago) • 3 readings/hr • 159 views

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Current Level
0.114 mASD
▬ Steady
24h Max
0.116 mASD
24h Min
0.114 mASD
Typical Range
0.17 - 0.67
mASD
Highest Recorded
2.09 mASD
4 Dec 1960
Since Apr 1953
Current level is 5% of this
🚽 Sewage overflows nearby

Recent Water Levels

🌍 floodradar.co.uk
1 day

Recent Readings

Steady over 6h
23 Aug 23:15 ▬ steady 0.114 mASD
23 Aug 23:00 ▬ steady 0.114 mASD
23 Aug 22:45 ▬ steady 0.114 mASD
23 Aug 21:30 ▬ steady 0.114 mASD
23 Aug 21:15 ▬ steady 0.114 mASD
23 Aug 21:00 ▬ steady 0.114 mASD
23 Aug 20:45 ▬ steady 0.114 mASD
23 Aug 20:30 ▬ steady 0.114 mASD
23 Aug 20:15 ▬ steady 0.114 mASD
23 Aug 20:00 ▬ steady 0.114 mASD
23 Aug 19:45 ▬ steady 0.114 mASD
23 Aug 19:30 ▬ steady 0.114 mASD
23 Aug 19:15 ▬ steady 0.114 mASD
23 Aug 19:00 ▬ steady 0.114 mASD
23 Aug 18:45 ▬ steady 0.114 mASD
23 Aug 18:30 ▬ steady 0.114 mASD
23 Aug 18:15 ▬ steady 0.114 mASD
23 Aug 18:00 ▬ steady 0.114 mASD
23 Aug 17:45 ▬ steady 0.114 mASD
23 Aug 17:30 0.114 mASD

Rainfall & Weather

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Flood history near this gauge

Official Environment Agency warnings issued since 2007 for the 16 flood areas linked to this gauge (nearest 0.5 km away).

121flood warnings 131flood alerts

Most recent flood warning: 6 Feb 2026Marchington Brook at Marchington

Year by year
YearWarningsAlerts
2026 1 5
2025 5 10
2024 19 18
2023 18 15
2022 1 7
2021 14 15
2020 12 11
2019 11 17
2018 2 3
2017 0 1
2016 4 6
2014 1 3
2013 6 4
2012 14 8
2010 4 1
2008 8 3
2007 1 4

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 Rocester flood history.

Nearby Stations

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Station Details

  • Monitoring Station: Rocester
  • Watercourse: River Dove
  • Nearest Town: Rocester
  • County: Staffordshire
  • Nearest reservoir: Blithfield (16.9 km) · 100.0% full (as of 3 Aug 2026)
  • Coordinates: 52°57'16"N 1°50'2"W (52.954550, -1.833986)
  • Open in: Google Maps · Apple Maps (opens your maps app)
  • Date Opened: 15 Apr 1953
  • Status: Active
  • Station Type: River level station
  • Station Reference: 4008
  • EA Gauge ID: 4008-level-stage-i-15_min-mASD
  • Parameter: Level
  • Unit: mASD
  • Typical rise rate: 1 cm/hr (p95 sustained over 90 days)
  • Typical data delay: ~22 min (measured reading→publication lag)
  • Tidal: No
  • Lock / structure: No
  • Catchment Area: Dove
  • Typical Range: 0.167 – 0.671 mASD
  • Drainage Area: 399 km² upstream of this gauge
  • Flow Data: Available (m³/s) via EA Hydrology
  • EA Cross-check: 0.11 mASD (EA at 23 Aug 23:15)
  • Flow Archive: National River Flow Archive ↗

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 response A 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
0.56
mixed response
Avg Annual Rainfall
1,081 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +6% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
0.7%
largely rural
Median Annual Flood
86.87 m³/s
QMED — typical yearly peak flow
Highest Recorded Flow
101 m³/s
21 Dec 1991
Flow-Duration Curve
mean 7.6221.105.351.805% (high)% of days exceeded95% (low)
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 4%Grassland 89%Arable 2%Heath/scrub 2%Urban 2%Other 2%
Grassland 92% → 89% since 1990

Photos

Gauging-station photographs from the National River Flow Archive (UKCEH).

Photos © NRFA / UKCEH & the measuring authority — shown at web resolution. Full gallery on the NRFA ↗

About this gauge

Velocity area station with old mill weir acting as a rather insensitive control.

More detail

The catchment

A predominantly upland catchment in which the headwaters drain Millstone Grit and Carboniferous Limestone. Lower reaches are Permain and Triassic Sandstones and Triassic Mudstone. Some superficial deposits within river valleys. Land use is predominantly moorland and pasture.

The station

Velocity area station approximately 19.8m wide. Hydro-electric power scheme and larinier fish pass added to control structure in 2011.

How it measures flow

Station bypassed when out of bank (3-4 times per year). Weir crest prone to algal growth. Gauging from a footbridge and more recently by remote controlled ADCP adjacent to gauge board, downstream of bridge. No gaugings above bankfull hence little confidence in rating above this point. Two ratings cover period or record, revised in 2016.

Flow regime

Flows natural to within 10% at the 95 percentile flow.

The flow record

Early flow data of lower quality than later records, due to readings taken from gauge boards. Period-of-record maximum flow is listed as 132.3 cumecs in Dec 1991. The Dec 1960 peak had a higher stage but the derivation of the flow cannot be verified. The two events were of a broadly similar magnitude. Rating from 25/11/2011 accounts for fish pass and hydroelectric power scheme. Full period of record peak flow data reviewed and released in August 2021 (WINFAP Files v10).

Descriptions from the National River Flow Archive (UKCEH). NRFA station record ↗

Gauge Details

How this gauging station is built and how long it has measured (NRFA / UKCEH).

Gauge type
Velocity–area
Operating since
1953
Station datum
86.3 mAOD
Flow record
1953–2024 · 71 yrs · 100% complete
Peak-flow record
since 1954
Hydrometric area
28
Measured by
Environment Agency

Frequently asked questions

Is the River Dove at Rocester flooding today?

The current level is 0.11m, which is below the typical range. Flooding is very unlikely at this level.

Is the river level rising or falling at Rocester?

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 Dove at Rocester?

The typical range at this station is 0.17m to 0.67m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 0.67m 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.

Embed this gauge on your website

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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:

Check any UK postcode’s flood risk →

🏠 Buying or renting around here? Get the Property Flood-Risk Report for any English postcode — official risk band, floods since 1946, warning history, river behaviour and nearby storm overflows. £19 one-off. Learn more →