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You'll be notified when this gauge is rising more than 0.10 m/hr — a sign of rapidly increasing water levels.
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Current Level
0.077 m
▬ Steady
24h Max
0.078 m
24h Min
0.076 m
Typical Range
0.10 - 0.68
m
Highest Recorded
1.25 m
EA official record
1.19 in our data (since Oct 1979)
Current level is 6% 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
24 Aug 00:00▬ steady0.077 m
23 Aug 23:45▬ steady0.077 m
23 Aug 23:30▬ steady0.077 m
23 Aug 23:15▬ steady0.077 m
23 Aug 23:00▬ steady0.077 m
23 Aug 22:45▬ steady0.077 m
23 Aug 21:30▬ steady0.077 m
23 Aug 21:15▬ steady0.077 m
23 Aug 21:00▬ steady0.077 m
23 Aug 20:45▼ -0.1 cm0.077 m
23 Aug 20:30▬ steady0.078 m
23 Aug 20:15▬ steady0.078 m
23 Aug 20:00▲ +0.1 cm0.078 m
23 Aug 19:45▬ steady0.077 m
23 Aug 19:30▼ -0.1 cm0.077 m
23 Aug 19:15▬ steady0.078 m
23 Aug 19:00▬ steady0.078 m
23 Aug 18:45▬ steady0.078 m
23 Aug 18:30▬ steady0.078 m
23 Aug 18:150.078 m
Rainfall & Weather
Loading rainfall and weather data...
Flood history near this gauge
Official Environment Agency warnings issued since 2007 for the 6 flood
areas linked to this gauge (nearest 0.5 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 Polstead 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
🌊 Mixed responseA 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
603 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +0% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
1.2%
largely rural
Median Annual Flood
3.88 m³/s
QMED — typical yearly peak flow
Highest Recorded Flow
6.79 m³/s
6 Nov 2000
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.
Gauging a rural, predominantly London Clay and Chalk catchment with superficial deposits and with only minor artificial influences. Station is occasionally affected by weed growth.
More detail
The catchment
Predominantly London Clay; Chalk in N, all overlain by Boulder Clay and some sands and gravels. Rural, predominantly arable land.
The station
Trapezoidal flume with high flow rated spillway. Throat tapping.
How it measures flow
Subject to reed/weed growth problems. One rating applied across period of record. Non-modular flows recorded since 1997 using secondary instrument.
Flow regime
Gw-influenced regime. Minimal ground and surface water abstractions for agricultural/industrial purposes. Runoff increased by 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. Naturalised flows from 1961 to 1976. Full period of record peak flow data reviewed and released in September 2020 (WINFAP Files v9).
How this gauging station is built and how long it has measured (NRFA / UKCEH).
Gauge type
Flume
Operating since
1960
Station datum
15.9 mAOD
Flow record
1960–2024 · 64 yrs · 100% complete
Peak-flow record
since 1961
Hydrometric area
36
Measured by
Environment Agency
Nearby Groundwater
Soil Moisture
Possible storm-overflow correlation
🚽 Storm overflows on this river
Frequently asked questions
Is the River Box at Polstead flooding today?
The current level is 0.08m, which is below the typical range. Flooding is very unlikely at this level.
Is the river level rising or falling at Polstead?
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 Box at Polstead?
The typical range at this station is 0.10m to 0.68m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 0.68m 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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Free live river-level widget — ideal for parish councils, angling clubs and local sites. Updates automatically.
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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:
