Aire and Calder catchment
• Ravensthorpe • West Yorkshire • ID: F1385 • Level
(32m ago) • 3 readings/hr • 179 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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EA/SEPA/NRW data and are best-efforts. Terms
Current Level
0.041 m
▬ Steady
24h Max
0.056 m
24h Min
0.039 m
Typical Range
0.04 - 0.50
m
Highest Recorded
1.68 m
EA official record
1.68 in our data (since Jun 1982)
Current level is 2% 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 8 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.
13 storm overflows are traced upstream of this gauge, the nearest 700 m away along the river. 0 report discharging now, 13 report not discharging.
Yorkshire Water · into Culverted Trib Of Spen River · 2.7 km away in a straight line · no mapped watercourse close enough to be sure
35 spills · 38 hours in 2025
Not discharging now · last
21 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 0.50 m
on about 7 days.
This year so far: 4 days.
20264 days so far
20259 days, 4 of them high · 4 high
202411 days, 5 of them high · 5 high
202310 days, 5 of them high · 5 high
20226 days, 2 of them high · 2 high
20217 days, 4 of them high · 4 high
20208 days, 3 of them high · 3 high
201910 days, 6 of them high · 6 high
20184 days, 1 of them high · 1 high
20170 days
Counted from each day's highest reading. Days with missing or implausible readings are left out.
The darker part is days above 0.66 m, the level this gauge tops only a few days a year.
Flood history near this gauge
Official Environment Agency warnings issued since 2012 for the 15 flood
areas linked to this gauge (nearest 0.3 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 Ravensthorpe flood history.
Flood areas linked to this gauge
Flood warnings and alerts are issued for whole areas. These are the 15 areas linked to this gauge, nearest first.
🌊 Urban & flashyHeavily built-up — rain runs off hard surfaces fast, so levels can spike within hours of heavy rain.
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
0.43
mixed response
Avg Annual Rainfall
816 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +0% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
26%
heavily urbanised
Highest Daily Mean Flow
18.40 m³/s
25 Jun 2007 · 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.
Land Cover (2023)
Woodland 3%Grassland 46%Arable 3%Urban 47%
Arable 7% → 3% since 1990
Flow affected by: effluent returns.
Photos
Gauging-station photographs from the National River Flow Archive (UKCEH).
A largely urban catchment developed mostly on Coal Measures.
The station
Crump Weir.
How it measures flow
Downstream recorder, but processed flows assume modularity; backing-up from the Calder causes occasional drowning.
Flow regime
Sewage effluent component evident on hydrograph but since beginning of 1999 artificial influences have been greatly reduced - closure of STWs and reduction of mine water discharges upstream; major impact on low flows and significant reduction in runoff.
Timing, not cause. Gauges can move together simply because the same rain fell on both.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Spen Beck at Northorpe flooding today?
The current level is 0.04m, which is within the typical range of 0.04 to 0.50m. Flooding is unlikely at this level.
Is the river level rising or falling at Northorpe?
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 Spen Beck at Northorpe?
The typical range at this station is 0.04m to 0.50m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 0.50m 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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1983 Upstream view of gauging station
1983 View of channel upstream of gauging station
1983 View of catchment upstream from gauging station