← Back
0.19

Long Melford

Chad Brook
Essex catchment • Long Melford • Suffolk • ID: E22563 • Level
(22m ago) • 4 readings/hr • 121 views

Set water level alerts

Get notified about Long Melford — tick as many as you like, they all share the notify settings below.

Unusual rise FloodRadar+Top 1% rise rate for this gauge.
Drag the line on the chart, or type a value: m
Quick pick:

Each one is saved as its own alert — pause or remove them individually any time.

Not an emergency service — if in danger call 999. Alerts rely on EA/SEPA data and are best-efforts. Terms

Current Level
0.188 m
▬ Steady
24h Max
0.192 m
24h Min
0.184 m
Typical Range
0.05 - 0.72
m
Highest Recorded
1.40 m
21 Apr 2022
Since Dec 1984
Current level is 13% of this
🚽 Sewage overflows nearby

Recent Water Levels

🌍 floodradar.co.uk
1 day

Recent Readings

Steady over 6h
24 Aug 00:30 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.188 m
24 Aug 00:15 ▬ steady 0.189 m
24 Aug 00:00 ▲ +0.1 cm 0.189 m
23 Aug 23:45 ▬ steady 0.188 m
23 Aug 23:30 ▬ steady 0.188 m
23 Aug 23:15 ▬ steady 0.188 m
23 Aug 23:00 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.188 m
23 Aug 22:45 ▲ +0.1 cm 0.189 m
23 Aug 21:30 ▬ steady 0.188 m
23 Aug 21:15 ▬ steady 0.188 m
23 Aug 21:00 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.188 m
23 Aug 20:45 ▲ +0.1 cm 0.189 m
23 Aug 20:30 ▬ steady 0.188 m
23 Aug 20:15 ▬ steady 0.188 m
23 Aug 20:00 ▬ steady 0.188 m
23 Aug 19:45 ▬ steady 0.188 m
23 Aug 19:30 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.188 m
23 Aug 19:15 ▬ steady 0.189 m
23 Aug 19:00 ▲ +0.1 cm 0.189 m
23 Aug 18:45 0.188 m

Rainfall & Weather

Loading rainfall and weather data...

Flood history near this gauge

Official Environment Agency warnings issued since 2007 for the 2 flood areas linked to this gauge (nearest 7.2 km away).

2flood warnings 59flood alerts

Most recent flood warning: 20 Oct 2023The River Stour from downstream of Kedington to Sudbury

Year by year
YearWarningsAlerts
2026 0 2
2025 0 2
2024 0 7
2023 2 6
2022 0 7
2021 0 7
2020 0 6
2019 0 2
2018 0 1
2016 0 2
2015 0 1
2014 0 4
2013 0 1
2012 0 5
2010 0 1
2009 0 1
2008 0 2
2007 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 Long Melford flood history.

Nearby Stations

Loading nearby stations...

Station Details

  • Monitoring Station: Long Melford
  • Watercourse: Chad Brook
  • Nearest Town: Long Melford
  • County: Suffolk
  • Nearest reservoir: Ardleigh (24.0 km) · 63.5% full (as of 17 Aug 2026)
  • Coordinates: 52°4'49"N 0°43'28"E (52.080294, 0.724408)
  • Open in: Google Maps · Apple Maps (opens your maps app)
  • Date Opened: 2 Oct 1979
  • Status: Active
  • Station Type: River level station
  • Station Reference: E22563
  • EA Gauge ID: E22563-level-stage-i-15_min-m
  • Parameter: Level
  • Unit: m
  • Typical rise rate: 0 cm/hr (p95 sustained over 90 days)
  • Typical data delay: ~22 min (measured reading→publication lag)
  • Tidal: No
  • Lock / structure: No
  • Catchment Area: Essex
  • Typical Range: 0.047 – 0.720 m
  • Drainage Area: 47 km² upstream of this gauge
  • Flow Data: Available (m³/s) via EA Hydrology
  • EA Cross-check: 0.19 m (EA at 24 Aug 00:15)
  • 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

🌊 Fairly flashy Responds 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
0.44
mixed response
Avg Annual Rainfall
625 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +3% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
0.6%
largely rural
Median Annual Flood
4.81 m³/s
QMED — typical yearly peak flow
Highest Recorded Flow
10.00 m³/s
16 Sep 1968
Flow-Duration Curve
mean 0.2601.020.1160.0285% (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 6%Grassland 25%Arable 66%Urban 3%
Arable 85% → 66% since 1990

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

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

An 'Essex' profile with side weir which can be affected by drowning in summer, gauging a rural, Chalk catchment completely covered with Boulder Clay.

More detail

The catchment

Chalk with complete cover of Boulder Clay. Rural catchment, predominantly arable farming.

The station

'Essex' profile (modified Flat V Crump) weir with low flow side weir.

How it measures flow

Low flow side weir drowns in summer due to weed growth. Poorly maintained channel also influences modular limit. High flow spillway accurate to 1.1m. Theoretically rated. Full range with convincing water-balance but low flow data should be treated as indicative only. One rating applied across period of record.

Flow regime

Gw-influenced regime. Runoff reduced by industrial/agricultural abstraction.

The flow record

Naturalised flows from 1965 to 1976. Missing data in 2010 and 2011 is as a result of water level management practices which caused the structure to become non-modular. Magnitude of POR maximum flow in Sept 1968 is supported by EA, but may be an underestimate as flow known to have been extrapolated. Full period of record peak flow data reviewed and released in September 2019 (WINFAP Files v8).

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
1965
Station datum
34.8 mAOD
Flow record
1965–2024 · 59 yrs · 98% complete
Peak-flow record
since 1965
Hydrometric area
36
Measured by
Environment Agency

Frequently asked questions

Is the Chad Brook at Long Melford flooding today?

The current level is 0.19m, which is within the typical range of 0.05 to 0.72m. Flooding is unlikely at this level.

Is the river level rising or falling at Long Melford?

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 Chad Brook at Long Melford?

The typical range at this station is 0.05m to 0.72m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 0.72m 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

Free live river-level widget — ideal for parish councils, angling clubs and local sites. Updates automatically.

Preview

📮 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 →