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2.12

Isleham

Lark
Cam and Ely Ouse (Including South Level) catchment • Isleham • Suffolk • ID: E22374 • Level
(1h ago) • 4 readings/hr • 161 views

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Current Level
2.122 mASD
▬ Steady
24h Max
2.123 mASD
24h Min
2.112 mASD
Typical Range
1.94 - 2.19
mASD
Highest Recorded
2.72 mASD
EA official record
2.71 in our data (since Mar 1997)
Current level is 78% of this
🚽 Sewage overflows nearby

Recent Water Levels

🌍 floodradar.co.uk
1 day

Recent Readings

Steady over 6h
08 Oct 01:30 ▬ steady 2.122 mASD
08 Oct 01:15 ▬ steady 2.121 mASD
08 Oct 01:00 ▬ steady 2.120 mASD
08 Oct 00:45 ▬ steady 2.120 mASD
08 Oct 00:30 ▬ steady 2.121 mASD
08 Oct 00:15 ▬ steady 2.120 mASD
08 Oct 00:00 ▬ steady 2.121 mASD
07 Oct 23:45 ▬ steady 2.121 mASD
07 Oct 23:30 ▬ steady 2.121 mASD
07 Oct 22:30 ▲ +0.3 cm 2.122 mASD
07 Oct 22:15 ▬ steady 2.119 mASD
07 Oct 22:00 ▬ steady 2.120 mASD
07 Oct 21:45 ▬ steady 2.120 mASD
07 Oct 21:30 ▬ steady 2.121 mASD
07 Oct 21:15 ▬ steady 2.121 mASD
07 Oct 21:00 ▬ steady 2.120 mASD
07 Oct 20:45 ▬ steady 2.121 mASD
07 Oct 20:30 ▬ steady 2.122 mASD
07 Oct 20:15 ▬ steady 2.122 mASD
07 Oct 20:00 2.122 mASD

Station Details

  • Monitoring Station: Isleham
  • Watercourse: River Lark
  • Nearest Town: Isleham
  • County: Suffolk
  • Coordinates: 52°21'26"N 0°25'7"E (52.357278, 0.418569)
  • Open in: Google Maps · Apple Maps (opens your maps app)
  • Date Opened: 1 Mar 1997
  • Status: Active
  • Station Type: River level station
Technical details: references, datum, range, flow archive
  • Station Reference: E22374
  • RLOI id: 6271 (the EA's check-for-flooding station id)
  • EA Gauge ID: E22374-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: Cam and Ely Ouse (Including South Level)
  • Typical Range: 1.939 – 2.190 mASD
  • Drainage Area: 466 km² upstream of this gauge
  • EA Cross-check: 2.12 mASD (EA at 8 Oct 01:45)
  • 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.

Nearby Stations

Gauges connected to this river, and others nearby. A distance “by river” follows the river on the map; any other is in a straight line.

Connected upstream

Connected downstream

Same river system, separate branch

Nearby

Distances by river: OS Open Rivers. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database rights 2026.

💧 Storm overflows upstream of this gauge

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.

5 storm overflows are traced upstream of this gauge, the nearest 5.4 km away along the river. 0 report discharging now, 5 report not discharging.

💧
Anglian Water · into River Lark · 5.4 km upstream along the river
0 spills · 0 hours in 2025
Not discharging now · last
💧
Anglian Water · into The River Lark · 25.2 km upstream along the river
3 spills · 3 hours in 2025
Not discharging now · last
💧
Anglian Water · into River Lark · 25.2 km upstream along the river
3 spills · 17 hours in 2025
Not discharging now · last
💧
Anglian Water · into The River Lark Nt · 35.0 km upstream along the river
1 spill · 1 hours in 2025
Not discharging now · last
💧
Anglian Water · into R Lark · 42.0 km upstream along the river
23 spills · 206 hours in 2025
Not discharging now · last

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 →

Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database rights 2026.

Rainfall & Weather

Loading rainfall and weather data...

How often this river runs high

In a typical year this gauge reaches its typical high of 2.19 m on about 12 days. This year so far: 9 days.

2026 9 days so far
2025 5 days
2024 28 days, 11 of them high · 11 high
2023 10 days
2022 11 days
2021 12 days, 5 of them high · 5 high
2020 21 days, 2 of them high · 2 high
2019 2 days
2018 4 days, 1 of them high · 1 high
2017 6 days patchy data

Counted from each day's highest reading. Days with missing or implausible readings are left out, so a year marked patchy may have run high more often than shown. The darker part is days above 2.31 m, the level this gauge tops only a few days a year.

Flood history near this gauge

Official Environment Agency warnings issued since 2012 for the 4 flood areas linked to this gauge (nearest 8.8 km away).

0flood warnings 17flood alerts

Most recent flood alert: 18 Feb 2024 — River Lark in Suffolk

Year by year
YearWarningsAlerts
2024 0 4
2023 0 3
2021 0 3
2020 0 3
2019 0 2
2012 0 2

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 Isleham flood history.

Flood areas linked to this gauge

Flood warnings and alerts are issued for whole areas. These are the 4 areas linked to this gauge, nearest first.

Catchment Character

🌊 Groundwater-fed Slow 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
0.78
groundwater-fed — slow & steady
Avg Annual Rainfall
617 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +2% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
2.5%
largely rural
Highest Daily Mean Flow
19.20 m³/s
8 Mar 1952 · daily mean, not the instantaneous peak
Flow-Duration Curve
mean 1.804.671.360.4395% (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 12%Grassland 30%Arable 51%Urban 6%
Arable 65% → 51% since 1990

Flow affected by: groundwater abstraction, effluent returns, industrial / agricultural abstraction.

About this gauge

Station gauging a navigation lock with Bury St Edmunds and large gw abstractions in the catchment dominated by Chalk geology and arable agriculture.

More detail

The catchment

Chalk, predominantly arable.

The station

Navigation lock with vertical lift gate u/s plus a 16m broad high level weir in bypass channel for flood flows only. Small notch inserted in 1980. 1986 weir was lowered, altered to triangular profile and flows diverted to the bypass channel. The lock is now used during high flows only.

Flow regime

Two large gw abstractions (Bury St Edmunds).

The flow record

Since 1968 major peaks diverted through cutoff channel (10km u/s) - to the Relief Channel at Denver.

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
Gauging structure
Operating since
1936–1986
Station datum
2.4 mAOD
Flow record
1936–1986 · 50 yrs · 98% complete
Hydrometric area
33
Measured by
Environment Agency

Frequently asked questions

Is the River Lark at Isleham flooding today?

The current level is 2.12m, which is within the typical range of 1.94 to 2.19m. Flooding is unlikely at this level.

Is the river level rising or falling at Isleham?

Based on the most recent readings, the level is currently steady. The chart above shows the last 12 hours of measurements by default (up to 7 days), updated roughly every 15 minutes.

What is a normal level for the River Lark at Isleham?

The typical range at this station is 1.94m to 2.19m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 2.19m 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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📮 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, recorded floods, warning history, river behaviour and nearby storm overflows. £19 one-off. Learn more →