Upper and Bedford Ouse catchment
• Cappenham • West Northamptonshire • ID: E21042 • Level
(21m ago) • 4 readings/hr • 162 views
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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.
Get notified when recent rainfall near this gauge crosses its learnt rise trigger — an early "watch"
signal, typically hours before a rise. Experimental; not an official flood warning.
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Current Level
0.149 m
▬ Steady
24h Max
0.186 m
24h Min
0.115 m
Typical Range
0.11 - 0.58
m
Highest Recorded
2.06 m
EA official record
1.87 in our data (since Oct 1979)
Current level is 7% of this
🚽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.
CAPPENHAM GS (E24518) — flow at this site
7 days
A separate gauge 4.1 m from this one at the same site, shown here for context.
Its readings are its own and are never merged with this page's.
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.
10 storm overflows are traced upstream of this gauge, the nearest 1.6 km away along the river. 0 report discharging now, 9 report not discharging, and for 1 the monitor is offline or has not reported, so their status is not known.
Anglian Water · into Tove (Ds Greens Norton) · 5.4 km away in a straight line · its watercourse is not on the river map
0 spills · 0 hours in 2025
Not discharging now · last
4 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 →
In a typical year this gauge reaches its typical high of 0.58 m
on about 29 days.
This year so far: 34 days.
202634 days, 5 of them high · 5 highso far
202519 days, 4 of them high · 4 high
202465 days, 17 of them high · 17 high
202340 days, 4 of them high · 4 high
202216 days
202130 days, 7 of them high · 7 high
202037 days, 6 of them high · 6 high
201924 days, 6 of them high · 6 high
201819 days, 2 of them high · 2 high
201713 days, 1 of them high · 1 high
Counted from each day's highest reading. Days with missing or implausible readings are left out.
The darker part is days above 1.06 m, the level this gauge tops only a few days a year.
Flood history near this gauge
Official Environment Agency warnings issued since 2016 for the 3 flood
areas linked to this gauge (nearest 1.4 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 Cappenham flood history.
Flood areas linked to this gauge
Flood warnings and alerts are issued for whole areas. These are the 3 areas linked to this gauge, nearest first.
🌊 Fairly flashyResponds 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
0.37
mixed response
Avg Annual Rainfall
718 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +3% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
1.6%
largely rural
Median Annual Flood
17.04 m³/s
QMED — typical yearly peak flow
Highest Daily Mean Flow
32.72 m³/s
9 Apr 1998 · 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.
Compound broad-crested weir gauging a predominantly Chalk catchment. Station has record length over 50 years.
More detail
The catchment
Predominantly Chalk overlain with 50% Boulder Clay. Agricultural land use.
The station
Compound broad-crested trapezoidal weir, 7.6m broad; central notch, 2.7m broad.
How it measures flow
The weir is subject to drowning at high flows with some bypassing on the left bank; further gaugings required to confirm extent of this. Theoretical rating since Aug 1970. Previously, rating derived using a hydraulic model. Full EA rating developed in 2012 combining existing EA rating for first 3 segments, regression through check gaugings for segments 4 and 5, and an EA modelled high flow rating used for the top segment. New rating applied to length of record.
Flow regime
Runoff increased by effluent returns and reduced by industrial/agricultural abstraction.
The flow record
Full period of record peak flow data reviewed and released in October 2018 (WINFAP Files v7).
Timing, not cause. Gauges can move together simply because the same rain fell on both.
Frequently asked questions
Is the River Tove at Cappenham flooding today?
The current level is 0.15m, which is within the typical range of 0.11 to 0.58m. Flooding is unlikely at this level.
Is the river level rising or falling at Cappenham?
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 Tove at Cappenham?
The typical range at this station is 0.11m to 0.58m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 0.58m 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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21 Sep 2018 View of structure looking downstream from right bank
21 Sep 2018 View of structure looking upstream from right bank
12 Apr 2018 High flow conditions
9 Mar 2016 Cappenham when drowned
26 Nov 2015 Structure at typical flow
28 Aug 2012 Cappenham at high flow