Arun and Western Streams catchment
• Westbourne • West Sussex • ID: E10824 • Level
(47m ago) • 4 readings/hr • 150 views
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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 mASD/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"
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Current Level
0.113 mASD
▬ Steady
24h Max
0.115 mASD
24h Min
0.112 mASD
Typical Range
0.06 - 0.80
mASD
Highest Recorded
1.04 mASD
EA official record
1.03 in our data (since May 1981)
Current level is 11% 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
23 Aug 23:45▬ steady0.113 mASD
23 Aug 23:30▬ steady0.113 mASD
23 Aug 23:15▬ steady0.113 mASD
23 Aug 23:00▬ steady0.113 mASD
23 Aug 22:45▬ steady0.113 mASD
23 Aug 22:30▲ +0.1 cm0.113 mASD
23 Aug 21:15▬ steady0.112 mASD
23 Aug 21:00▼ -0.1 cm0.112 mASD
23 Aug 20:45▬ steady0.113 mASD
23 Aug 20:30▬ steady0.113 mASD
23 Aug 20:15▬ steady0.113 mASD
23 Aug 20:00▬ steady0.113 mASD
23 Aug 19:45▬ steady0.113 mASD
23 Aug 19:30▬ steady0.113 mASD
23 Aug 19:15▲ +0.1 cm0.113 mASD
23 Aug 19:00▼ -0.1 cm0.112 mASD
23 Aug 18:45▬ steady0.113 mASD
23 Aug 18:30▬ steady0.113 mASD
23 Aug 18:15▬ steady0.113 mASD
23 Aug 18:000.113 mASD
Rainfall & Weather
Loading rainfall and weather data...
Flood history near this gauge
Official Environment Agency warnings issued since 2011 for the 28 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 Westbourne 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
🌊 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
0.91
groundwater-fed — slow & steady
Avg Annual Rainfall
982 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +2% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
0.4%
largely rural
Median Annual Flood
2.28 m³/s
QMED — typical yearly peak flow
Highest Recorded Flow
5.08 m³/s
13 Dec 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.
Asymmetrical compound Crump weir gauging a river with baseflow-dominated regime. Significant net export of water from catchment, but also some flow augmentation.
More detail
The catchment
The Ems - which is ephemeral over much of its length - is a Chalk stream draining the South Downs; Drift cover is minimal. A rural catchment with significant woodland and scattered settlements. Geology principally chalk, therefore flow is predominantly from groundwater. Largely rural with significant woodland. No significant catchment changes known.
The station
Asymmetrical compound Crump profile weir; crests: 0.61m (showing effects of erosion) and 4.12m broad. Located 160m upstream of Hampshire Bridge.
How it measures flow
Structure limit 5.08 cumecs, modular throughout the flow range. Flows were above structure limit during 2000 event for long periods of time. All flows contained. Differential drawdown can affect river level measurement. One theoretical rating applied across period of record, but appears to overestimate flows.
Flow regime
Baseflow-dominated regime. Flood events are typically small, runoff normally approximately 1%. Significant net export of water from the catchment (groundwater abstractions) but low flows augmented by compensation water (from borehole).
How this gauging station is built and how long it has measured (NRFA / UKCEH).
Gauge type
Gauging structure
Operating since
1967
Station datum
9.6 mAOD
Flow record
1967–2024 · 57 yrs · 100% complete
Peak-flow record
since 1967
Hydrometric area
41
Measured by
Environment Agency
Nearby Groundwater
Soil Moisture
Possible storm-overflow correlation
🚽 Storm overflows on this river
Frequently asked questions
Is the River Ems at Westbourne flooding today?
The current level is 0.11m, which is within the typical range of 0.06 to 0.80m. Flooding is unlikely at this level.
Is the river level rising or falling at Westbourne?
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 Ems at Westbourne?
The typical range at this station is 0.06m to 0.80m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 0.80m 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:
