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0.42

Walcot

Tern
Shropshire Middle Severn catchment • Walcot • Telford and Wrekin • ID: 2012 • Level
(22m ago) • 4 readings/hr • 180 views

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Current Level
0.422 mASD
▬ Steady
24h Max
0.423 mASD
24h Min
0.383 mASD
Typical Range
0.39 - 1.30
mASD
Highest Recorded
2.96 mASD
EA official record
2.96 in our data (since May 1959)
Current level is 14% of this
🚽 Sewage overflows nearby

Recent Water Levels

🌍 floodradar.co.uk
1 day

Recent Readings

Rising · +1 cm over 6h
11 Sep 00:30 ▬ steady 0.422 mASD
11 Sep 00:15 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.422 mASD
11 Sep 00:00 ▲ +0.1 cm 0.423 mASD
10 Sep 23:45 ▲ +0.2 cm 0.422 mASD
10 Sep 22:30 ▲ +0.1 cm 0.420 mASD
10 Sep 22:15 ▲ +0.1 cm 0.419 mASD
10 Sep 22:00 ▬ steady 0.418 mASD
10 Sep 21:45 ▲ +0.1 cm 0.418 mASD
10 Sep 21:30 ▲ +0.1 cm 0.417 mASD
10 Sep 21:15 ▲ +0.1 cm 0.416 mASD
10 Sep 21:00 ▲ +0.1 cm 0.415 mASD
10 Sep 20:45 ▲ +0.1 cm 0.414 mASD
10 Sep 20:30 ▬ steady 0.413 mASD
10 Sep 20:15 ▲ +0.1 cm 0.413 mASD
10 Sep 20:00 ▬ steady 0.412 mASD
10 Sep 19:45 ▲ +0.2 cm 0.412 mASD
10 Sep 19:30 ▬ steady 0.410 mASD
10 Sep 19:15 ▲ +0.2 cm 0.410 mASD
10 Sep 19:00 ▬ steady 0.408 mASD
10 Sep 18:45 0.408 mASD

Rainfall & Weather

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Flood history near this gauge

Official Environment Agency warnings issued since 2006 for the 4 flood areas linked to this gauge (nearest 6.4 km away).

5flood warnings 376flood alerts

Most recent flood warning: 14 Nov 2025Rea Brook in Shrewsbury

Year by year
YearWarningsAlerts
2026 0 20
2025 1 16
2024 1 26
2023 0 24
2022 1 14
2021 1 16
2020 1 19
2019 0 20
2018 0 18
2017 0 16
2016 0 14
2015 0 14
2014 0 15
2013 0 22
2012 0 21
2011 0 8
2010 0 9
2009 0 11
2008 0 20
2007 0 36
2006 0 17

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 Walcot flood history.

Nearby Stations

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Station Details

  • Monitoring Station: Walcot
  • Watercourse: River Tern
  • Nearest Town: Walcot
  • County: Telford and Wrekin
  • Coordinates: 52°42'24"N 2°36'20"W (52.706629, -2.605580)
  • Open in: Google Maps · Apple Maps (opens your maps app)
  • Date Opened: 12 May 1959
  • Status: Active
  • Station Type: River level station
  • Station Reference: 2012
  • EA Gauge ID: 2012-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: Shropshire Middle Severn
  • Typical Range: 0.386 – 1.300 mASD
  • Drainage Area: 852 km² upstream of this gauge
  • Flow Data: Daily mean flow (m³/s) to 3 May (1226 days behind — the EA publishes each day's mean a day or two after it ends; unchecked, provisional) via EA Hydrology
  • EA Cross-check: 0.42 mASD (EA at 11 Sep 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

🌊 Mixed response A 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
0.62
mixed response
Avg Annual Rainfall
728 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +1% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
2.9%
largely rural
Median Annual Flood
34.88 m³/s
QMED — typical yearly peak flow
Highest Daily Mean Flow
56.30 m³/s
28 Jan 1990 · daily mean, not the instantaneous peak
Flow-Duration Curve
mean 6.8718.414.992.365% (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 43%Arable 44%Heath/scrub 1%Urban 6%Other 1%

Flow affected by: 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

Flat V weir that replaced earlier more primitive flow gauging sites (1959 - 1978) that suffered from unstable stage discharge relationship with regime highly affected by regional groundwater pumping and industrial inputs.

More detail

The catchment

Geology: mainly Triassic Sandstones with Triassic mudstones and Lower Lias to the northwest overlain by mixed glacial drift deposits. Predominantly agricultural, low relief catchment. Mixed land use.

The station

Initially rated section (1959-76), then gabion control (June 1976-Dec 1978), both very prone to weed growth leading to unstable stage-discharge relationship; now flat V weir, 15m wide with cableway.

How it measures flow

Siltation upstream and downstream of weir structure. Multiple ratings applied across period of record. Data from a acoustic doppler flow gauge located at the site was to derive the drowned flow above 0.658m. Top section was derived from high flow gaugings in 2007. Automatic system for flushing crest tapping chamber is not totally reliable. Cableway for high flows rating. Some concern over scatter in spot gaugings but this not such a problem at high flows. Fit well to recent gaugings.

Flow regime

Regional groundwater pumping for PWS and Severn regulation. Industrial effluent from Wellington and Newport; abstractions for spray irrigation. Net result only moderate.

The flow record

Bypass channel can be drained to enable work on weir, producing low or zero flows (e.g. 10 July 2003). 2011 flows higher than normal due to Shropshire groundwater scheme running in June. 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
Flat-V weir
Operating since
1960
Station datum
44.6 mAOD
Flow record
1959–2024 · 65 yrs · 100% complete
Peak-flow record
since 1959
Hydrometric area
54
Measured by
Environment Agency

Frequently asked questions

Is the River Tern at Walcot flooding today?

The current level is 0.42m, which is within the typical range of 0.39 to 1.30m. Flooding is unlikely at this level.

Is the river level rising or falling at Walcot?

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 Tern at Walcot?

The typical range at this station is 0.39m to 1.30m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 1.30m 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:

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 →