Aire and Calder catchment
• Huddersfield • West Yorkshire • ID: F1102 • Level
(33m ago) • 4 readings/hr • 167 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
0.508 m
▼ Falling (-1cm/hr)
24h Max
0.575 m
24h Min
0.277 m
Typical Range
0.22 - 1.00
m
Highest Recorded
2.35 m
EA official record
2.35 in our data (since Jan 1966)
Current level is 22% 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 7 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.
93 storm overflows are traced upstream of this gauge, the nearest 560 m away along the river. 0 report discharging now, 89 report not discharging, and for 4 the monitor is offline or has not reported, so their status is not known.
Yorkshire Water · into Oxfield Beck · 2.8 km away in a straight line · its recorded watercourse is not the one mapped beside it
9 spills · 65 hours in 2025
Not discharging now · last
15 more within 6 km whose connection is not known.
28 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 1.00 m
on about 10 days.
This year so far: 1 day.
20261 day so far
20257 days, 4 of them high · 4 high
20248 days, 6 of them high · 6 high
202319 days, 6 of them high · 6 high
20227 days, 3 of them high · 3 high
202111 days, 5 of them high · 5 high
202018 days, 12 of them high · 12 high
201916 days, 10 of them high · 10 high
20185 days, 3 of them high · 3 high
20171 day
Counted from each day's highest reading. Days with missing or implausible readings are left out.
The darker part is days above 1.18 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 21 flood
areas linked to this gauge (nearest 0.9 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 Huddersfield flood history.
Flood areas linked to this gauge
Flood warnings and alerts are issued for whole areas. These are the 21 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
0.61
mixed response
Avg Annual Rainfall
1,185 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +5% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
9.0%
partly urbanised
Median Annual Flood
91.03 m³/s
QMED — typical yearly peak flow
Highest Daily Mean Flow
113 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.
A non-standard broad-crested weir within high banks containing all flows.
More detail
The catchment
The catchment draining the East side of the Pennines above Huddersfield. Mixed geology with Carboniferous Millstone Grit in the upper catchment and Coal Measures, which dip under Lower Coal Measures in the lower part. Catchment comprises peat-covered moorland headwaters used for rough grazing. Steep valleys descend rapidly to heavily industrialised and densely settled valley bottoms and which includes Huddersfield. Continuing increase in urbanisation around Huddersfield during period of record.
The station
A non-standard, curved, concrete broad-crested weir 52m wide with an off-centre steel-crested Crump weir notch 3.8m wide for more accurate low flow measurement. Broad-crested flanking weirs 0.4m higher. The existing sidewalls extend well upstream and no end contractions are known. Located within high, regular-profile riverbanks which contains flow at all levels. Colne Bridge is located about 650m upstream of the confluence with the Calder. There are some problems of silting.
How it measures flow
Weir control, no bypassing. Low flow rating from Crump formula, empirical rating for higher flows fitted to gaugings at cableway 200m downstream. Gauged to AMAX3 and 85% of AMAX1. Rating reviewed in 2020, revised rating D gives good fit to high flow gaugings from 2012 flood event. Flood Studies Report grade B.
Flow regime
There are numerous small storage reservoirs in the Colne valley. An estimated 16.75% of catchment drains through around 8 reservoirs. Abstractions are made for supply at Huddersfield. Some imports of water received from Deanhead reservoir and groundwater abstractions. Export of water is made from Blackmoorfoot reservoir. Industrial abstraction from downstream of the confluence with the Calder is discharged back to the Colne upstream of the station. Industrial abstraction along the Huddersfield Broad Canal.
The flow record
Although such events are rare, the 1946 flood level reached 2.4m over the Crump. Low flows in February 1992 due to a landslip event causing ponding u/s of station; flows bypassed through nearby canal. Full period of record peak flow data reviewed and released in August 2021 (WINFAP Files v10).
Timing, not cause. Gauges can move together simply because the same rain fell on both.
Frequently asked questions
Is the River Colne at Colne Bridge flooding today?
The current level is 0.51m, which is within the typical range of 0.22 to 1.00m. Flooding is unlikely at this level.
Is the river level rising or falling at Colne Bridge?
Based on the most recent readings, the level is currently falling. 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 Colne at Colne Bridge?
The typical range at this station is 0.22m to 1.00m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 1.00m 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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30 Nov 2006 Weir from right bank (0.51m stage)
30 Nov 2006 View upstream towards weir (0.51m stage)
30 Nov 2006 View downstream towards weir (0.51m stage)
18 Oct 2004 Weir from left bank
1983
1983
1983
Weir looking u/s
View from above weir looking d/s
Weir from left bank at low flow
Cableway hut