Wharfe and Lower Ouse catchment
• Wetherby • West Yorkshire • ID: F2004 • Level
(50m ago) • 2 readings/hr • 197 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
0.916 m
▼ Falling (-1cm/hr)
24h Max
1.282 m
24h Min
0.640 m
Typical Range
0.40 - 2.60
m
Highest Recorded
3.74 m
EA official record
3.70 in our data (since Nov 1965)
Current level is 24% 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. The nearest rain gauge has sent no readings in the last day, so Nimbus has no recent measured rain to work from here.
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.
56 storm overflows are traced upstream of this gauge, the nearest 570 m away along the river. 1 reports discharging now, 53 report not discharging, and for 2 the monitor is offline or has not reported, so their status is not known.
Yorkshire Water · into Farnley Wood Beck · 4.4 km away in a straight line · no mapped watercourse close enough to be sure
0 spills · 0 hours in 2025
Status unknown — the live feed has not updated for 10 d 2 h
3 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 Wetherby 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.
🌊 Fairly flashyResponds 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
0.39
mixed response
Avg Annual Rainfall
1,251 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +7% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
1.6%
largely rural
Median Annual Flood
237 m³/s
QMED — typical yearly peak flow
Highest Daily Mean Flow
297 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.
Broad-crested masonry mill weir in a rural catchment with some net export of water to the Aire Valley.
More detail
The catchment
Mixed geology of moderate permeability - mainly Carboniferous Limestone, grits and Coal Measures with just under half the catchment overlain by superficial deposits. Predominantly mixed rural catchment, two thirds of the catchment is grassland, with moorland headwaters. No known catchment changes.
The station
Broad-crested masonry mill weir (47m wide), rated by check gaugings. Tadcaster ultrasonic gauge (27089) installed 1990, intended to replace Flint Mill but station retained primarily for high flow measurement. Check gauged at cableway 1.5km u/s but this was moved to 27089 in 1990. Flow was originally recorded on a flow chart up to the level of weir by-passing (1.6m), and level thereafter. Mill sluice operation in 1990s and modification of weir in 2010 affect low flow measurements.
How it measures flow
Cableway built 1954 0.75 miles upstream of weir. More accurate flow recorder installed in 1959. Station recalibrated 1965 due to insensitivity at low flows; control was deteriorating, but without known change in gauge zero. Weir control insensitive at low flows. Unlikely to drown at high flows, though small amount of bypassing on the right bank possible. Two peak flow ratings applied across period of record, Rating B originally derived by weir formula then checked by current meter with good fit to gaugings. Current rating from 2010, reflects reconstruction of weir crest to a higher level (raised by 0.08m) in summer 2010 but gauge zero not changed, difference is incorporated into rating offset. FSR rated excellent for high flows. Fish pass construction from late 2019 affects rating at low flows and another change will be required once sufficient data available for recalibration.
Flow regime
Regulation effect of headwater reservoirs evident at low flows. Small net export of water to the Aire Valley (including Bradford supply).
The flow record
For early records, chart zero was often set 0.3m below the weir crest to allow for the weir crest drying up due to leakage. This practice stopped in the 1960s. Flow charts from 1936-1955 considered unreliable and have not been digitised. Flow charts from 1955 to 1965 are digitised but have not been reprocessed with revised rating. Records since 1965 have been reprocessed with revised rating and are considered reliable for high flows, pre-1965 data is less reliable. Rating reviewed in 2022 and data reprocessed from 2009. Gap in data in 2010 due to weir repairs carried out by the landowner. Closed to daily flows in 2010 due to ongoing issues. Peaks flows are unaffected and held post-2010. 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 Wharfe at Flint Mill flooding today?
The current level is 0.92m, which is within the typical range of 0.40 to 2.60m. Flooding is unlikely at this level.
Is the river level rising or falling at Flint Mill?
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. Only about 0.0mm of rain has fallen nearby in the last 7 days, so the flow is being sustained mainly by groundwater. 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 Wharfe at Flint Mill?
The typical range at this station is 0.40m to 2.60m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 2.60m 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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Looking upstream from R bank
Looking downstream from gauging hut
Section in front of gauge hut
View downstream from gauging hut R bank
Weir following repairs in 2010
Weir