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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
0.514 m
▼ Easing
24h Max
0.890 m
24h Min
0.514 m
Typical Range
0.48 - 5.00
m
Highest Recorded
5.89 m
EA official record
A 8.44 reading (28 Sep 2025) sits in our unverified raw history and is not treated as the record
Current level is 9% 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.
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.
228 storm overflows are traced upstream of this gauge, the nearest 490 m away along the river. 0 report discharging now, 221 report not discharging, and for 7 the monitor is offline or has not reported, so their status is not known.
Yorkshire Water · into Chickenley Beck · 1.9 km away in a straight line · its water cannot be followed on the map
1 spill · 0 hours in 2025
Not discharging now
17 more within 6 km whose connection is not known.
20 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 Dewsbury flood history.
Flood areas linked to this gauge
Flood warnings and alerts are issued for whole areas. These are the 25 areas linked to this gauge, nearest first.
🌊 Mixed responseA balance of quick runoff and slower groundwater baseflow.
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
0.52
mixed response
Avg Annual Rainfall
1,182 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +3% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
8.7%
partly urbanised
Median Annual Flood
266 m³/s
QMED — typical yearly peak flow
Highest Daily Mean Flow
316 m³/s
20 Feb 2022 · 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.
Ultrasonic velocity-area station replaced level-only station in 2000. Catchment is heavily reservoired.
More detail
The catchment
Catchment draining the eastern flank of the Pennines. The geology is predominantly Upper Carboniferous Millstone Grit but includes Lower Coal Measures. Headwaters rise from peat-covered moorland. From rough grazing, very steep, often wooded headwater valleys cut down through Millstone Grit. The valley floors are strongly urbanised and industrialised. Increasing urbanisation in valley bottom towns.
The station
Ultrasonic gauge with additional velocity area rating, built October 2000. Situated on a meander 30m wide, around 0.6km d/s of where the Dewsbury Flood Defence Channel rejoins the River Calder. Man-made channel with vertical sided masonry walls, open out to wider channel at around 2.3m stage, wider channel also has vertical sides. Natural channel was canalised in early 1970s (finished end of 1974). Replaced existing river level-only station. Level-only station built in April 1964, and had a pressure transducer from 1975. Station number previously 27835.
How it measures flow
Ultrasonic gauge with rating curve based on check gaugings. Ultrasonic used for daily flow records, rating is used to infill periods where ultrasonic data is missing for daily flows. Rating curve has proved more reliable in flood events and is now used as the main source for peak flow data. High vertical walls contain all flows in the section, no known bypassing.
Flow regime
Catchment is heavily reservoired, mainly by small impoundments, but including Walshaw Dean. Estimated 12.2% of catchment drains through around 20 reservoirs. Some abstraction to supply Yorkshire Grid. Also affected by sewage treatment works discharges, leads to diurnal variations in flow.
The flow record
Records pre October 2000 are derived from the rating curve, after that date daily flows are primarily from the ultrasonic gauge but peak flows all derived from rating. Full period of record peak flow data reviewed and released in September 2020 (WINFAP Files v9).
Timing, not cause. Gauges can move together simply because the same rain fell on both.
Frequently asked questions
Is the River Calder at Dewsbury flooding today?
The current level is 0.51m, which is within the typical range of 0.48 to 5.00m. Flooding is unlikely at this level.
Is the river level rising or falling at Dewsbury?
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 Dewsbury?
The typical range at this station is 0.48m to 5.00m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 5.00m 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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15 Jan 2015 Looking downstream through gauge section. Gaugeboard, transducers and instrument building all in view on the right bank.
15 Jan 2015 View across to left bank transducer racks.
15 Jan 2015 View downstream from the right bank.
15 Jan 2015 View of the right bank. Gaugeboards, transducer racks and instrument building all in shot.
15 Jan 2015 Looking back upstream through the gauge section from the left bank.
Gauge section and downstream channel from L bank
Looking u/s towards gauge section from L bank