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⤴Unusual rise — FloodRadar+Top 1% rise rate for this gauge.
Height for "Above a height"
Drag the line on the chart, or type a value:mASD
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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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EA/SEPA/NRW data and are best-efforts. Terms
Current Level
0.059 mASD
▬ Steady
24h Max
0.076 mASD
24h Min
0.057 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 6% 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.
WESTBOURNE GS (E10823) — flow at this site
7 days
A separate gauge 5.3 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
None of the storm overflows FloodRadar holds is traced upstream of this gauge on the mapped river network. That is not the same as none: the map leaves out many small streams and culverts, so an overflow it cannot place may still drain here, and not every company publishes every overflow. Those nearby are listed below.
Nearby, connection not known
Within 6 km in a straight line, but the river map cannot say whether their water passes this gauge.
Southern Water · into Brockhampton Creek · 5.1 km away in a straight line · discharges to the sea, an estuary or tidal water
3 spills · 8 hours in 2025
Not discharging now · last
3 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 →
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.
Flood areas linked to this gauge
Flood warnings and alerts are issued for whole areas. These are the 28 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
0.91
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 Daily Mean Flow
5.08 m³/s
13 Dec 2000 · 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.
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).
Timing, not cause. Gauges can move together simply because the same rain fell on both.
Frequently asked questions
Is the River Ems at Westbourne flooding today?
The current level is 0.06m, 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 12 hours of measurements by default (up to 7 days), 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 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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