Cam and Ely Ouse (Including South Level) catchment
• Fornham St Martin • Suffolk • ID: E21107 • Level
(27m ago) • 2 readings/hr • 131 views
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Current Level
0.031 m
▬ Steady
24h Max
0.032 m
24h Min
0.030 m
Typical Range
0.08 - 0.39
m
Highest Recorded
1.12 m
3 Jan 2003
Since Sep 1985
Current level is 3% of this
🚽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 6h
23 Aug 23:00▬ steady0.031 m
23 Aug 22:45▬ steady0.031 m
23 Aug 21:30▬ steady0.031 m
23 Aug 21:15▲ +0.1 cm0.031 m
23 Aug 21:00▼ -0.1 cm0.030 m
23 Aug 20:45▲ +0.1 cm0.031 m
23 Aug 20:30▬ steady0.030 m
23 Aug 20:15▬ steady0.030 m
23 Aug 20:00▬ steady0.030 m
23 Aug 19:45▬ steady0.030 m
23 Aug 19:30▬ steady0.030 m
23 Aug 19:15▬ steady0.030 m
23 Aug 19:00▬ steady0.030 m
23 Aug 18:45▬ steady0.030 m
23 Aug 18:30▬ steady0.030 m
23 Aug 18:15▬ steady0.030 m
23 Aug 18:00▼ -0.1 cm0.030 m
23 Aug 17:45▲ +0.1 cm0.031 m
23 Aug 17:30▬ steady0.030 m
23 Aug 17:150.030 m
Rainfall & Weather
Loading rainfall and weather data...
Flood history near this gauge
Official Environment Agency warnings issued since 2021 for the 3 flood
areas linked to this gauge (nearest 0.4 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 Fornham St Martin 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
🌊 Groundwater-fedSlow and steady — fed largely by groundwater, so levels change gradually, not in sudden spikes.
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
0.66
groundwater-fed — slow & steady
Avg Annual Rainfall
643 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +4% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
6.7%
partly urbanised
Highest Recorded Flow
7.61 m³/s
2 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.
Land Cover (2023)
Woodland 7%Grassland 28%Arable 51%Urban 14%
Arable 65% → 51% since 1990
Photos
Gauging-station photographs from the National River Flow Archive (UKCEH).
Complex station located just d/s from Bury St Edmunds, gauging otherwise predominantly rural catchment.
More detail
The catchment
Predominantly rural catchment with Bury St Edmunds just u/s from the station.
The station
Site consists of three parts: Central crump profile low flow weir, 2.57 m wide, set between flanks which are treated as a broad-crested weir 0.796 m wide (rb width 0.66 m, lb width 0.136 m, length of crest 1.30 m), and a side-weir for flood relief purposes, which consists of a crump weir 5.17 m wide in a bypass channel. Site located just d/s from Bury St Edmunds.
How this gauging station is built and how long it has measured (NRFA / UKCEH).
Gauge type
Gauging structure
Operating since
1985
Station datum
26.2 mAOD
Flow record
1985–2024 · 39 yrs · 99% complete
Hydrometric area
33
Measured by
Environment Agency
Nearby Groundwater
Soil Moisture
Possible storm-overflow correlation
🚽 Storm overflows on this river
Frequently asked questions
Is the River Lark at Fornham St Martin flooding today?
The current level is 0.03m, which is below the typical range. Flooding is very unlikely at this level.
Is the river level rising or falling at Fornham St Martin?
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 Lark at Fornham St Martin?
The typical range at this station is 0.08m to 0.39m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 0.39m 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:
