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0.24

Westmill

Stour
Essex catchment • Pentlow • Suffolk • ID: E22539 • Level
(34m ago) • 4 readings/hr • 159 views

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Current Level
0.243 mASD
▬ Steady
24h Max
0.248 mASD
24h Min
0.216 mASD
Typical Range
0.10 - 1.60
mASD
Highest Recorded
2.04 mASD
EA official record
2.03 in our data (since Oct 1979)
Current level is 12% of this
🚽 Sewage overflows nearby

Recent Water Levels

🌍 floodradar.co.uk
1 day

Recent Readings

Steady over 5h
10 Oct 13:00 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.243 mASD
10 Oct 12:45 ▲ +0.1 cm 0.244 mASD
10 Oct 12:30 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.243 mASD
10 Oct 12:15 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.244 mASD
10 Oct 12:00 ▬ steady 0.245 mASD
10 Oct 11:45 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.245 mASD
10 Oct 11:30 ▬ steady 0.246 mASD
10 Oct 11:15 ▬ steady 0.246 mASD
10 Oct 11:00 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.246 mASD
10 Oct 10:45 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.247 mASD
10 Oct 10:30 ▲ +0.1 cm 0.248 mASD
10 Oct 10:15 ▬ steady 0.247 mASD
10 Oct 10:00 ▬ steady 0.247 mASD
10 Oct 09:45 ▲ +0.2 cm 0.247 mASD
10 Oct 09:30 ▲ +0.1 cm 0.245 mASD
10 Oct 09:15 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.244 mASD
10 Oct 09:00 ▲ +0.1 cm 0.245 mASD
10 Oct 08:45 ▬ steady 0.244 mASD
10 Oct 08:30 ▲ +0.1 cm 0.244 mASD
10 Oct 08:00 0.243 mASD

Station Details

  • Monitoring Station: Westmill
  • Watercourse: River Stour
  • Nearest Town: Pentlow
  • County: Suffolk
  • Coordinates: 52°5'7"N 0°39'57"E (52.085266, 0.665897)
  • Open in: Google Maps · Apple Maps (opens your maps app)
  • Date Opened: 1 Oct 1979
  • Status: Active
  • Station Type: River level station
Technical details: references, datum, range, flow archive
  • Station Reference: E22539
  • RLOI id: 6134 (the EA's check-for-flooding station id)
  • EA Gauge ID: E22539-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: Essex
  • Typical Range: 0.104 – 1.600 mASD
  • Drainage Area: 225 km² upstream of this gauge
  • Flow Data: Daily mean flow (m³/s) to 8 Oct (2 days behind — the EA publishes each day's mean a day or two after it ends; unchecked, provisional) via EA Hydrology
  • EA Cross-check: 0.24 mASD (EA at 10 Oct 12:45)
  • 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.

6 storm overflows are traced upstream of this gauge, the nearest 13.3 km away along the river. 0 report discharging now, 5 report not discharging, and for 1 the monitor is offline or has not reported, so their status is not known.

💧
Anglian Water · into Chilton Brook River Stour Nt · 13.3 km upstream along the river
20 spills · 300 hours in 2025
Not discharging now · last
Placed on the river by its position alone.
💧
Anglian Water · into Bumpstead Brook River Stour N · 20.1 km upstream along the river
20 spills · 117 hours in 2025
Not discharging now · last
💧
Anglian Water · into Bumpstead Brook · 20.2 km upstream along the river
9 spills · 39 hours in 2025
Not discharging now · last
💧
Anglian Water · into Stour Brook River Stour Nt · 20.9 km upstream along the river
3 spills · 29 hours in 2025
Not discharging now · last
💧
Anglian Water · into Bumpstead Brook · 21.1 km upstream along the river
5 spills · 51 hours in 2025
Monitor offline: it cannot say whether it is discharging
💧
Anglian Water · into Tributary Of The River Stour · 24.0 km upstream along the river
9 spills · 59 hours in 2025
Not discharging now · last

Nearby, connection not known

Within 6 km in a straight line, but the river map cannot say whether their water passes this gauge.

💧
Anglian Water · into Unnamed Trib River Stour · 390 m away in a straight line · no mapped watercourse close enough to be sure
4 spills · 8 hours in 2025
Not discharging now · last

2 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 →

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 1.60 m on about 3 days. This year so far: 3 days.

2026 3 days so far
2025 1 day
2024 10 days
2023 6 days
2022 0 days
2021 3 days
2020 4 days
2019 1 day
2018 0 days
2017 0 days

Counted from each day's highest reading. Days with missing or implausible readings are left out.

Flood history near this gauge

Official Environment Agency warnings issued since 2007 for the 2 flood areas linked to this gauge (nearest 3.5 km away).

2flood warnings 59flood alerts

Most recent flood warning: 20 Oct 2023 — The 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 Pentlow flood history.

Flood areas linked to this gauge

Flood warnings and alerts are issued for whole areas. These are the 2 areas linked to this gauge, nearest first.

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
0.41
mixed response
Avg Annual Rainfall
627 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +3% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
2.3%
largely rural
Median Annual Flood
16.00 m³/s
QMED — typical yearly peak flow
Highest Daily Mean Flow
40.00 m³/s
16 Sep 1968 · daily mean, not the instantaneous peak
Flow-Duration Curve
mean 1.364.870.6850.1495% (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 5%Grassland 19%Arable 71%Urban 5%
Arable 82% → 71% since 1990

Flow affected by: reservoir influence, groundwater abstraction, effluent returns, 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

Record of low accuracy from a rural, Upper Chalk catchment with major artificial influences. The site theoretically has a modular limit of around 1.7m.

More detail

The catchment

Upper Chalk overlain by superficial deposits, mainly semi-pervious Boulder Clay and some sand and gravel. Rural, predominantly arable land.

The station

Compound trapezoidal critical depth flume with d/s level recorder.

How it measures flow

Affected by weed growth but rarely drowns out. Above 1.15m some flow passes over a broad-crested weir 100m u/s into a spillway. The gaugings for this station are float runs and are less accurate than standard methods and result in some scatter around the rating. One rating applied across period of record. Affected by non-modular flow.

Flow regime

Gw-influenced regime. Since 22/3/1971, flow augmented by intermittent pumping from the Ely/Ouse Transfer Scheme. Runoff also influenced by industrial/agricultural abstraction from surface and groundwater, and effluent returns.

The flow record

No POT data are presented for this station as they have no non-modular flow correction applied. AMAX data have been corrected, but in some cases can be below the daily flow as these are not corrected. Archived daily flows adjusted for the effects of Ely/Ouse Transfer Scheme until 1976. Peak flow in December 2014 not available (non-modular). Full period of record peak flow data reviewed and released in September 2022 (WINFAP Files v11).

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
Flume
Operating since
1960
Station datum
33.2 mAOD
Flow record
1960–2024 · 64 yrs · 100% complete
Peak-flow record
since 1960
Hydrometric area
36
Measured by
Environment Agency

Frequently asked questions

Is the River Stour at Westmill flooding today?

The current level is 0.24m, which is within the typical range of 0.10 to 1.60m. Flooding is unlikely at this level.

Is the river level rising or falling at Westmill?

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 Stour at Westmill?

The typical range at this station is 0.10m to 1.60m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 1.60m 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 →