Get notified about Kites Hardwick — tick as many as you like, they all share the notify settings below.
Alert me when (tick one or more)
Height for "Above a height"
Drag the line on the chart, or type a value:mASD
Quick pick:
You'll be notified when this gauge is rising more than 0.10 mASD/hr — a sign of rapidly increasing water levels.
Beta. You'll be notified when a flood wave detected at an upstream gauge is forecast to reach this station, with an estimated arrival time. Accuracy improves as we verify more waves.
You'll be notified when a new storm-overflow (sewage) discharge starts within ~3 km of this gauge, based on the water companies' near-real-time feeds.
Notify by (tick one or more)
Your browser will ask permission, then you'll get a notification even when FloodRadar isn't open.
On iPhone: tap Share → Add to Home Screen first, then open it from there and set the alert.
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
0.077 mASD
▬ Steady
24h Max
0.082 mASD
24h Min
0.069 mASD
Typical Range
0.01 - 1.14
mASD
Highest Recorded
2.51 mASD
EA official record
2.50 in our data (since Jan 2000)
Current level is 3% of this
🚽Sewage overflows nearby
Recent Water Levels
🌍 floodradar.co.uk
1 day
Flood predictions aren't generated for
lock / structure gauges —
their levels are driven by gate operation,
not by catchment rainfall, so the forecast models would have no skill here.
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.
Downstream level
7 days
The level on the DOWNSTREAM side of this lock/weir structure — a separate EA
measure from the main (upstream) reading shown on the Current tab. Threshold bands
are computed from this gauge's own downstream history.
Long Term
🌍 floodradar.co.uk
—
Consecutive rainy days0 → 10+
Days Above Normal
This year vs 5-year monthly range
Recent Readings
Rising · +0.3 cm over 6h
24 Aug 00:30▲ +0.1 cm0.077 mASD
24 Aug 00:15▼ -0.1 cm0.076 mASD
24 Aug 00:00▬ steady0.077 mASD
23 Aug 23:45▬ steady0.077 mASD
23 Aug 23:30▬ steady0.077 mASD
23 Aug 23:15▬ steady0.077 mASD
23 Aug 23:00▬ steady0.077 mASD
23 Aug 22:45▬ steady0.077 mASD
23 Aug 21:30▬ steady0.077 mASD
23 Aug 21:15▲ +0.1 cm0.077 mASD
23 Aug 21:00▬ steady0.076 mASD
23 Aug 20:45▬ steady0.076 mASD
23 Aug 20:30▲ +0.1 cm0.076 mASD
23 Aug 20:15▬ steady0.075 mASD
23 Aug 20:00▲ +0.1 cm0.075 mASD
23 Aug 19:45▬ steady0.074 mASD
23 Aug 19:30▬ steady0.074 mASD
23 Aug 19:15▬ steady0.074 mASD
23 Aug 19:00▬ steady0.074 mASD
23 Aug 18:450.074 mASD
Rainfall & Weather
Loading rainfall and weather data...
Flood history near this gauge
Official Environment Agency warnings issued since 2008 for the 10 flood
areas linked to this gauge (nearest 0.3 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 Kites Hardwick 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
🌊 FlashyRain runs off fast — levels rise and fall sharply, often within hours of heavy rain.
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
0.28
flashy — rain runs off fast
Avg Annual Rainfall
658 mm/yr
1991–2020 · -5% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
1.4%
largely rural
Highest Recorded Flow
10.10 m³/s
21 Jul 2007
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.
Flat Vee weir with brick gauge house and cableway opened in January 2000.
More detail
The catchment
The River Leam heads North, passing the outskirts of Braunston before turning northwest towards Grandborough. It then heads west passing through Kites Hardwick gauging station, just south of Draycote Water. It then continues heading west towards Eathorpe gauging station. Catchment generally comprised of low lying agricultural land.
The station
Originally an open channel site opened 25/01/2000. It was opened for low flow measurement but primarily for high flows, following the Bye Report. Prior to its installation, flows and flood warnings on the River Leam were based on levels at Eathorpe, which was downstream of the confluence with the River Itchen. The 1998 floods proved that this was insufficient for accurate flood warning. In June 2000, a project was set up to install a flat vee weir and gauge house located downstream of Thurlaston Bridge. The weir was designed as low and shallow as it could be, to provide useful flow information at low levels but would drown out at high levels and not cause any backing up.
How it measures flow
Flat Vee weir has a low modular limit and starts to drown above 0.2m. A downstream tail recorder was added on 27/01/2003 and is currently used with the theoretical rating to calculate flows. Gaugings carried out across flow range, using remote controlled ADCP. In-channel weed growth can affect low flow gaugings, however weed is managed during the summer months. Out of bank flow can be measured by wade gauging, using a current meter or Flowtracker. A topographic survey was commissioned by an external contractor in 2018/19 due to potential gauge board relocation and levelling issues in general. It was carried out on 08/02/2019 and are awaiting results.
Flow regime
Flow generally baseflow dominated. Artificial influences include Thurlaston road bridge, approximately 30m upstream. At higher levels, flows bypass the channel on the left bank side, at about 1.8m. There is a large bend in the river approximately 12m downstream.
The flow record
Missing mean flow data in recent years due to issue with flow calculation during non-modular conditions.
How this gauging station is built and how long it has measured (NRFA / UKCEH).
Gauge type
Flat-V weir
Operating since
1990
Station datum
69.5 mAOD
Flow record
2005–2024 · 19 yrs · 95% complete
Hydrometric area
54
Measured by
Environment Agency
Nearby Groundwater
Soil Moisture
🚽 Storm overflows on this river
Frequently asked questions
Is the River Leam at Kites Hardwick flooding today?
The current level is 0.08m, which is within the typical range of 0.01 to 1.14m. Flooding is unlikely at this level.
Is the river level rising or falling at Kites Hardwick?
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 Leam at Kites Hardwick?
The typical range at this station is 0.01m to 1.14m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 1.14m 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:
