Aire and Calder catchment
• Birkwood • West Yorkshire • ID: L1303 • Level
(43m ago) • 4 readings/hr • 200 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.
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Current Level
0.655 m
▼ Easing
24h Max
0.863 m
24h Min
0.655 m
Typical Range
0.52 - 1.65
m
Highest Recorded
5.22 m
EA official record
4.91 in our data (since Apr 2003)
Current level is 13% 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.
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.
277 storm overflows are traced upstream of this gauge, the nearest 950 m away along the river. 0 report discharging now, 267 report not discharging, and for 10 the monitor is offline or has not reported, so their status is not known.
Yorkshire Water · into Carr Gate Beck · 4.5 km away in a straight line · its watercourse is not on the river map
0 spills · 0 hours in 2025
Not discharging now
7 more within 6 km whose connection is not known.
14 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 1.65 m
on about 44 days.
This year so far: 20 days.
202620 days so far
202533 days, 4 of them high · 4 high
202440 days, 3 of them high · 3 high
202377 days, 6 of them high · 6 high
202230 days, 3 of them high · 3 high
202144 days, 6 of them high · 6 high
202040 days, 9 of them high · 9 high
201942 days, 6 of them high · 6 highpatchy data
201828 days, 2 of them high · 2 highpatchy data
201716 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 3.25 m, the level this gauge tops only a few days a year.
Flood history near this gauge
Official Environment Agency warnings issued since 2011 for the 18 flood
areas linked to this gauge (nearest 1.0 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 Birkwood flood history.
Flood areas linked to this gauge
Flood warnings and alerts are issued for whole areas. These are the 18 areas linked to this gauge, nearest first.
This gauge has no rain model of its own, but it usually follows Queen's Mill: when about 6mm of rain falls near Queen's Mill in 6h, this gauge usually starts rising about 4 hours later.
Timing, not cause. Gauges can move together simply because the same rain fell on both.
Frequently asked questions
Is the River Calder at Birkwood flooding today?
The current level is 0.66m, which is within the typical range of 0.52 to 1.65m. Flooding is unlikely at this level.
Is the river level rising or falling at Birkwood?
Based on the most recent readings, the level is currently falling slightly. The chart above shows the last 12 hours of measurements by default (up to 7 days), updated roughly every 15 minutes.
Why is the level slowly falling?
When little or no rain has fallen for a while, a river level gradually drops as the water stored in the ground and soil drains away with nothing to replace it. This is called baseflow recession and is normal in dry spells. A gentle decline like this is expected and is not a sign of a problem — downstream gauges often recede a little faster than headwaters further upstream, and levels recover once rain returns.
What is a normal level for the River Calder at Birkwood?
The typical range at this station is 0.52m to 1.65m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 1.65m 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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