South Cumbria catchment
• Newby Bridge • Westmorland and Furness • ID: 735430 • Level
(33m ago) • 3 readings/hr • 202 views
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Current Level
0.479 m
▬ Steady
24h Max
0.524 m
24h Min
0.464 m
Typical Range
0.31 - 1.40
m
Highest Recorded
2.54 m
20 Nov 2009
Since Jan 1976
Current level is 19% of this
🚽Sewage overflows nearby
Recent Water Levels
🌍 floodradar.co.uk
1 day
Prediction V2
Prediction Eris
Nimbus beta
Experimental model fusing soil moisture, river flow, groundwater and catchment
character. Shown with its calibrated 10–90% confidence band. 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.
Long Term
🌍 floodradar.co.uk
—
Consecutive rainy days0 → 10+
Days Above Normal
This year vs 5-year monthly range
Recent Readings
Rising · +2 cm over 6h
23 Aug 23:15▲ +2 cm0.479 m
23 Aug 23:00▼ -2 cm0.464 m
23 Aug 22:45▼ -0.1 cm0.481 m
23 Aug 21:30▼ -0.6 cm0.482 m
23 Aug 21:15▲ +0.6 cm0.488 m
23 Aug 21:00▲ +0.7 cm0.482 m
23 Aug 20:45▼ -0.1 cm0.475 m
23 Aug 20:30▼ -0.8 cm0.476 m
23 Aug 20:15▬ steady0.484 m
23 Aug 20:00▲ +0.5 cm0.484 m
23 Aug 19:45▼ -0.3 cm0.479 m
23 Aug 19:30▬ steady0.482 m
23 Aug 19:15▲ +0.1 cm0.482 m
23 Aug 19:00▼ -0.1 cm0.481 m
23 Aug 18:45▲ +0.5 cm0.482 m
23 Aug 18:30▲ +0.6 cm0.477 m
23 Aug 18:15▬ steady0.471 m
23 Aug 18:00▬ steady0.471 m
23 Aug 17:45▲ +0.7 cm0.471 m
23 Aug 17:300.464 m
Rainfall & Weather
Loading rainfall and weather data...
Flood history near this gauge
Official Environment Agency warnings issued since 2006 for the 6 flood
areas linked to this gauge (nearest 1.1 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 Newby Bridge flood history.
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
🌊 Steep & flashySteep catchment sheds rain quickly — expect fast, sharp rises after 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
0.44
mixed response
Avg Annual Rainfall
2,411 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +9% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
0.6%
largely rural
Median Annual Flood
72.28 m³/s
QMED — typical yearly peak flow
Highest Recorded Flow
191 m³/s
20 Nov 2009
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.
Compound Crump profile weir gauging the outflow of Lake Windermere. The lake supports public water supply abstraction and attenuates peak flows.
More detail
The catchment
Catchment drains southern parts of the Lake District massif. Predominantly impervious, Borrowdale Volcanics in north and Silurian Slate in south. Boulder Clay along river valleys. Mainly grassland, very wooded in lower reaches. Catchment contains Windermere, Esthwaite Water, Rydal Water and Grasmere, and numerous other small, natural water bodies. No catchment changes known.
The station
Level record since 1939 from four different sites at Newby Bridge. All flow records from 1939 to 1974 combined into a single sequence. Since 04/05/1971 Compound Crump profile weir. The original "Recorder" station to 1969 was a recorder in a box with stilling well located where the upstream face of the bridge met the right bank. Chart trace appears ok. However, there was no staff gauge at the site to check the chart levels in the early years, and some concerns about the representativeness of recorded levels during high flows, and/or datum changes. The PGS (Primary Gauging Station; 1963-1981) was a velocity area station with a hut and cableway, on the right bank approx 140m upstream of the bridge. The period of overlap of the Recorder and PGS stations enabled a stage-discharge relationship to be derived for the Recorder station. In 1971 the weir immediately downstream of the bridge was reconstructed, flood relief gates added, and the present FMS (Flow Measuring Station) built downstream. A temporary recorder was installed approx 600m downstream of the FMS during construction of the FMS and upstream weir. The FMS station has a low central notch 3.7m wide, and two flanking crests 10m and 16.9 m wide, 0.65 m higher. Weir was repaired summer 2013 and crests restored to original profile; does not appear to have affected the single rating equation.
How it measures flow
Full-range station. The bridge is a control at medium to high flows, though some modelling suggests that the comparatively narrow part of the lake upstream of the bridge can act as a control on lake levels. The November 2009 event exceeded the top of the divide walls, but the weir was not drowned (see photos). There are 2 ADCP gaugings from December 2015 at 2.145m and 2.134m, extrapolated beyond. Observations of weir during highest event on record give confidence to extrapolation of rating. There is an effect of the upstream flood relief gates on recorded flows, they can suddenly increase significantly when opened and suddenly decrease significantly when closed. There are fish sluice gates on the upstream weir which are opened at very low flows to maintain a certain flow downstream. Therefore recorded flows at extreme levels have a large artificial influence. Multiple peak flow ratings across period of record.
Flow regime
Abstractions from Lake Windermere for public water supply. Peak flows attenuated by Lake Windermere.
The flow record
The records from the various stations since 1939 have been merged to form one record, though the Recorder record has more uncertainties than the later stations. Peak stage data for the Recorder period have been adjusted; the adjustment sets the offset of the rating equation to zero, which should generally be around 0.274m. (So an original stated level of 1.274m at a chart datum of 38.71mAOD with (h-0.274m) in the rating equation has been reset to a level of 1.0m, with (h+0) in the rating equation). The temporary station was used to calculate flows by correlation with the PGS and used to infill the flow record from Sept 1970 to June 1971. Full period of record peak flow data reviewed and released in September 2019 (WINFAP Files v8).
How this gauging station is built and how long it has measured (NRFA / UKCEH).
Gauge type
Gauging structure
Operating since
1939
Station datum
37.3 mAOD
Flow record
1939–2024 · 85 yrs · 100% complete
Peak-flow record
since 1939
Hydrometric area
73
Measured by
Environment Agency
Nearby Groundwater
Soil Moisture
Possible storm-overflow correlation
🚽 Storm overflows on this river
Frequently asked questions
Is the River Leven at Newby Bridge flooding today?
The current level is 0.48m, which is within the typical range of 0.31 to 1.40m. Flooding is unlikely at this level.
Is the river level rising or falling at Newby Bridge?
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 Leven at Newby Bridge?
The typical range at this station is 0.31m to 1.40m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 1.40m 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:
