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0.32

Elland

Calder
Aire and Calder catchment • Elland • West Yorkshire • ID: F1203 • Level
(21m ago) • 1 reading/hr • 152 views

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Current Level
0.320 m
▬ Steady
24h Max
0.326 m
24h Min
0.284 m
Typical Range
0.35 - 1.35
m
Highest Recorded
2.76 m
EA official record
2.75 in our data (since Apr 1966)
Current level is 12% of this
🚽 Sewage overflows nearby

Recent Water Levels

🌍 floodradar.co.uk
1 day

Recent Readings

Falling · -0.3 cm over 6h
23 Aug 22:45 ▬ steady 0.320 m
23 Aug 21:30 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.320 m
23 Aug 21:15 ▬ steady 0.321 m
23 Aug 21:00 ▬ steady 0.321 m
23 Aug 20:45 ▬ steady 0.321 m
23 Aug 20:30 ▬ steady 0.321 m
23 Aug 20:15 ▬ steady 0.321 m
23 Aug 20:00 ▬ steady 0.321 m
23 Aug 19:45 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.321 m
23 Aug 19:30 ▬ steady 0.322 m
23 Aug 19:15 ▬ steady 0.322 m
23 Aug 19:00 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.322 m
23 Aug 18:45 ▬ steady 0.323 m
23 Aug 18:30 ▬ steady 0.323 m
23 Aug 18:15 ▬ steady 0.323 m
23 Aug 18:00 ▬ steady 0.323 m
23 Aug 17:45 ▬ steady 0.323 m
23 Aug 17:30 ▬ steady 0.323 m
23 Aug 17:15 ▬ steady 0.323 m
23 Aug 17:00 0.323 m

Rainfall & Weather

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Flood history near this gauge

Official Environment Agency warnings issued since 2011 for the 25 flood areas linked to this gauge (nearest 1.1 km away).

3severe warnings 134flood warnings 155flood alerts

Most recent flood warning: 1 Jan 2025River Calder and River Ryburn at Sowerby Bridge

Year by year
YearSevereWarningsAlerts
2026 0 0 1
2025 0 9 6
2024 0 1 12
2023 0 3 7
2022 0 5 4
2021 0 2 10
2020 0 22 10
2019 0 24 14
2018 0 3 9
2017 0 1 11
2016 0 6 17
2015 3 40 20
2014 0 5 7
2013 0 0 7
2012 0 13 17
2011 0 0 3

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 Elland flood history.

Nearby Stations

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Station Details

  • Monitoring Station: Elland
  • Watercourse: River Calder
  • Nearest Town: Elland
  • County: West Yorkshire
  • Nearest reservoir: Ringstone Ire (8.4 km) · 84.8% full (as of 10 Aug 2026)
  • Coordinates: 53°41'39"N 1°48'49"W (53.694286, -1.813678)
  • Open in: Google Maps · Apple Maps (opens your maps app)
  • Date Opened: 5 Apr 1966
  • Status: Active
  • Station Type: River level station
  • Station Reference: F1203
  • EA Gauge ID: F1203-level-stage-i-15_min-m
  • Parameter: Level
  • Unit: m
  • Typical rise rate: 2 cm/hr (p95 sustained over 90 days)
  • Typical data delay: ~22 min (measured reading→publication lag)
  • Tidal: No
  • Lock / structure: No
  • Catchment Area: Aire and Calder
  • Typical Range: 0.351 – 1.350 m
  • Drainage Area: 342 km² upstream of this gauge
  • Flow Data: Available (m³/s) via EA Hydrology
  • EA Cross-check: 0.32 m (EA at 23 Aug 22:15)
  • Flow Archive: National River Flow Archive ↗

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

🌊 Fairly flashy Responds 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
0.46
mixed response
Avg Annual Rainfall
1,302 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +3% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
4.8%
partly urbanised
Median Annual Flood
136 m³/s
QMED — typical yearly peak flow
Highest Recorded Flow
190 m³/s
26 Dec 2015
Flow-Duration Curve
mean 8.5227.424.942.055% (high)% of days exceeded95% (low)
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.
Land Cover (2023)
Woodland 6%Grassland 49%Heath/scrub 33%Urban 10%Other 2%
Woodland 11% → 6% since 1990

Flow affected by: surface-water abstraction, public water supply, industrial / agricultural abstraction.

Photos

Gauging-station photographs from the National River Flow Archive (UKCEH).

Photos © NRFA / UKCEH & the measuring authority — shown at web resolution. Full gallery on the NRFA ↗

About this gauge

Broad-crested masonry weir in catchment with heavily urbanised valley floors and rural headwaters.

More detail

The catchment

Catchment draining the eastern flank of the Pennines, above Halifax. Geology comprises Upper Carboniferous Millstone Grit Series but includes a small area of Lower Coal Measures at Elland. The headwaters rise from peat-covered moorland. Very steep and often-wooded, headwater valleys cut down through Millstone Grit. Valley bottoms of lower catchment are heavily urbanised and industrialised. Valleys rise steeply to moorland predominantly covered by peat. Higher land is roughly grazed. The valley floors are urbanised and industrialised; the catchment contains Halifax and Elland. Increasing urbanisation in valley bottom towns during period of record.

The station

Broad-crested masonry weir 53m wide with a 5m Crump-profile notch adjacent to the right wing wall for low flow measurement. In July 1969, deteriorating timber-crest replaced by concrete-cap. Low flow notch enlarged 1971 followed by recalibration. The weir is a short distance downstream of a bend. When the old canal, 'Tag Cut' was infilled, historic problem of flows bypassing the station removed.

How it measures flow

Current metering of low-flows was originally from the footbridge 200m downstream in June 1954, then from 1962 using an adjacent cableway. A pressure-bulb recorder was installed to monitor high flows in 1969. Cableway burned 1989 replaced by rail on vehicle bridge 200m d/s, 1996. Water level recorder re-sited nearer the river in 1980. Flow out of bank at recorder is contained at cableway. Two peak flow ratings applied across the period of record. Crump weir formula for weir notch with main weir calibrated by current metering from bridge. Flood Studies Report grade of A2 downgraded to C when computed flows were compared with original rating in 1975.

Flow regime

Heavily impounded with around 18 reservoirs controlling about 15.4% of total watershed, mainly by small impoundments, but including Walshaw Dean. Some abstraction to supply the Yorkshire Grid.

The flow record

Previous period-of-record maximum flow occurred in October 1967 but considerable uncertainty surrounds the event magnitude. The EA record a figure of 520 cumecs, but this is known to have been extrapolated and may have been affected by hydrometric changes. Partial weir collpased was repaired to same specifications in June 1982 necessitating a new rating curve. Flows reprocessed, resulting in a substantial increase in high flows and a decrease in low flows. Gaugings from 1987 were subject to systematic error and not used. Rating review in 2020, based on hydraulic modelling, reduced flows above 1.65m stage (1971-present). Pre-1971 peak flows are rejected as there is no known suitable rating for this period.

Descriptions from the National River Flow Archive (UKCEH). NRFA station record ↗

Gauge Details

How this gauging station is built and how long it has measured (NRFA / UKCEH).

Gauge type
Crump weir
Operating since
1961
Station datum
58.4 mAOD
Flow record
1961–2024 · 63 yrs · 96% complete
Peak-flow record
since 1953
Hydrometric area
27
Measured by
Environment Agency

Frequently asked questions

Is the River Calder at Elland flooding today?

The current level is 0.32m, which is below the typical range. Flooding is very unlikely at this level.

Is the river level rising or falling at Elland?

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 Calder at Elland?

The typical range at this station is 0.35m to 1.35m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 1.35m 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:

Check any UK postcode’s flood risk →

🏠 Buying or renting around here? Get the Property Flood-Risk Report for any English postcode — official risk band, floods since 1946, warning history, river behaviour and nearby storm overflows. £19 one-off. Learn more →