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⤴Unusual rise — FloodRadar+Top 1% rise rate for this gauge.
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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.
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.
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Not an emergency service — if in danger call 999. Alerts rely on
EA/SEPA/NRW data and are best-efforts. Terms
Current Level
1.353 mASD
▬ Steady
24h Max
1.369 mASD
24h Min
1.353 mASD
Typical Range
1.29 - 1.75
mASD
Highest Recorded
2.10 mASD
EA official record
A 3.11 reading (2 Apr 2025) sits in our unverified raw history and is not treated as the record
Current level is 64% of this
Current Flow
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🚽Sewage overflows nearby
Recent Water Levels
🌍 floodradar.co.uk
1 day
EA forecast (official)
Prediction V2
Prediction Eris
Nimbus beta
Experimental model fusing soil moisture, river flow, groundwater and catchment
character. The shaded band is its 10–90% range, widened so that about 80% of recent outcomes fall inside it.
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.
Flow Data: Daily mean flow (m³/s) to 6 Oct (2 days behind — the EA publishes each day's mean a day or two after it ends; unchecked, provisional)via EA Hydrology
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.
2 storm overflows are traced upstream of this gauge, the nearest 13.0 km away along the river. 0 report discharging now, 2 report not discharging.
Thames Water · into Pound Street Brook · 5.9 km away in a straight line · no mapped watercourse close enough to be sure
53 spills · 736 hours in 2025
Not discharging now · last
1 other overflow within 6 km is downstream of this gauge or on another branch of the river network, so it is 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 →
In a typical year this gauge reaches its typical high of 1.75 m
on about 31 days.
This year so far: 48 days.
202648 days so far
202514 days
2024131 days, 20 of them high · 20 high
20231 day
20220 days
20210 days
202042 days
20190 days patchy data
20180 days patchy data
20170 days patchy data
Counted from each day's highest reading. Days with missing or implausible readings are left out, so a year marked patchy may have run high more often than shown.
The darker part is days above 1.97 m, the level this gauge tops only a few days a year.
Flood history near this gauge
Official Environment Agency warnings issued since 2012 for the 8 flood
areas linked to this gauge (nearest 0.2 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 Shaw flood history.
Flood areas linked to this gauge
Flood warnings and alerts are issued for whole areas. These are the 8 areas linked to this gauge, nearest first.
🌊 Groundwater-fedSlow and steady — fed largely by groundwater, so levels change gradually, not in sudden spikes.
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
0.84
groundwater-fed — slow & steady
Avg Annual Rainfall
787 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +7% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
0.5%
largely rural
Median Annual Flood
3.10 m³/s
QMED — typical yearly peak flow
Highest Daily Mean Flow
9.18 m³/s
14 Feb 2014 · daily mean, not the instantaneous peak
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.
Land Cover (2023)
Woodland 8%Grassland 28%Arable 62%Urban 2%
Photos
Gauging-station photographs from the National River Flow Archive (UKCEH).
Situated on the River Lambourn to measure the input into the River Kennet. Installed to replace Shaw GS (39019) which was removed in 2019 to aid fish passage.
More detail
The catchment
A rural catchment in the Chalk of the Berkshire Downs. However there are significant Clay-with-Flints cover with alluvium in the valleys. Local suburban growth near the gauging station but it is primarily a rural catchment dominated by agricultural land use (predominantly arable and grassland).
The station
Installed during October 2014, alongside the Spout Ditch channel to be dual run with the original Shaw gauging station (39019) until it was decommissioned. Situated on the River Lambourn to measure the input into the River Kennet. The ultrasonic station is situated about 2.6km upstream of the confluence with the River Thames. The Lambourn catchment geology is predominantly Chalk, providing a high baseflow component to the hydrograph at Shaw. The Spout Ditch channel was not commissioned, and all equipment was removed. Station added to peak flows dataset in August 2025 (WINFAP Files v14).
How it measures flow
Ultrasonic gauging station. 10 interleaved crossed paths in racks. Gauge reports water height above a mean bed datum of zero. Gaugeboard offset 75m. Base of duct bracket above gaugeboard: 76.975mAOD. Electricity is routed in from a feeder pillar located adjacent to public footpath (upstream).
Flow regime
Groundwater-dominated flow. Flows affected by augmentation from West Berks groundwater scheme.
The flow record
There was a known issue with the ultrasonic gauge during August and September 2022, the gauge was very noisy and thus the flow was marked as suspect. The gauge may have been overestimating flow at this time.
How this gauging station is built and how long it has measured (NRFA / UKCEH).
Gauge type
Ultrasonic
Operating since
2014
Flow record
2013–2024 · 11 yrs · 99% complete
Peak-flow record
since 2014
Hydrometric area
39
Measured by
Environment Agency
Nearby Groundwater
Soil Moisture
Possible storm-overflow correlation
Frequently asked questions
Is the River Lambourn at Shaw flooding today?
The current level is 1.35m, which is within the typical range of 1.29 to 1.75m. Flooding is unlikely at this level.
Is the river level rising or falling at Shaw?
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 Lambourn at Shaw?
The typical range at this station is 1.29m to 1.75m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 1.75m 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:
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