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0.18

Sedgwick

Kent
South Cumbria catchment • Sedgwick • Westmorland and Furness • ID: 730511 • Level
(23m ago) • 4 readings/hr • 146 views

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Current Level
0.175 m
▬ Steady
24h Max
0.191 m
24h Min
0.173 m
Typical Range
0.19 - 1.70
m
Highest Recorded
4.28 m
5 Dec 2015
Since Jan 1976
Current level is 4% of this
🚽 Sewage overflows nearby

Recent Water Levels

🌍 floodradar.co.uk
1 day

Recent Readings

Steady over 6h
24 Aug 00:30 ▲ +0.1 cm 0.175 m
24 Aug 00:15 ▬ steady 0.174 m
24 Aug 00:00 ▼ -0.3 cm 0.174 m
23 Aug 23:45 ▼ -0.4 cm 0.177 m
23 Aug 23:30 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.181 m
23 Aug 23:15 ▲ +0.2 cm 0.182 m
23 Aug 23:00 ▲ +0.4 cm 0.180 m
23 Aug 22:45 ▼ -0.8 cm 0.176 m
23 Aug 21:30 ▲ +0.6 cm 0.184 m
23 Aug 21:15 ▲ +0.4 cm 0.178 m
23 Aug 21:00 ▬ steady 0.174 m
23 Aug 20:45 ▼ -0.3 cm 0.174 m
23 Aug 20:30 ▼ -0.3 cm 0.177 m
23 Aug 20:15 ▼ -0.3 cm 0.180 m
23 Aug 20:00 ▲ +0.2 cm 0.183 m
23 Aug 19:45 ▲ +0.4 cm 0.181 m
23 Aug 19:30 ▲ +0.4 cm 0.177 m
23 Aug 19:15 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.173 m
23 Aug 19:00 ▼ -0.2 cm 0.174 m
23 Aug 18:45 0.176 m

Rainfall & Weather

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Flood history near this gauge

Official Environment Agency warnings issued since 2006 for the 15 flood areas linked to this gauge (nearest 0.0 km away).

17severe warnings 45flood warnings 223flood alerts

Most recent flood warning: 15 Sep 2025Stock Beck at Appleby Rd, Spital Park, Fowl Ing, Mint Street, Dale Avenue, Kendal Business Park

Year by year
YearSevereWarningsAlerts
2026 0 0 3
2025 0 2 12
2024 0 1 10
2023 0 2 12
2022 0 1 1
2021 0 1 8
2020 0 7 10
2019 0 0 12
2018 0 0 2
2017 0 3 9
2016 0 1 8
2015 15 18 16
2014 0 0 4
2013 0 0 10
2012 0 0 13
2011 0 0 8
2010 0 1 9
2009 2 5 13
2008 0 3 17
2007 0 0 23
2006 0 0 23

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 Sedgwick flood history.

Nearby Stations

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Station Details

  • Station Reference: 730511
  • EA Gauge ID: 730511-level-stage-i-15_min-m
  • Parameter: Level
  • Unit: m
  • Typical rise rate: 4 cm/hr (p95 sustained over 90 days)
  • Typical data delay: ~21 min (measured reading→publication lag)
  • Tidal: No
  • Lock / structure: No
  • Catchment Area: South Cumbria
  • Typical Range: 0.190 – 1.700 m
  • Drainage Area: 209 km² upstream of this gauge
  • Flow Data: Available (m³/s) via EA Hydrology
  • EA Cross-check: 0.17 m (EA at 24 Aug 00:15)
  • 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

🌊 Mixed response A 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
0.51
mixed response
Avg Annual Rainfall
1,905 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +8% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
1.8%
largely rural
Median Annual Flood
170 m³/s
QMED — typical yearly peak flow
Highest Recorded Flow
391 m³/s
5 Dec 2015
Flow-Duration Curve
mean 9.5830.905.381.195% (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 4%Grassland 87%Arable 1%Heath/scrub 3%Urban 4%Other 1%

Flow affected by: 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

Compound broad-crested weir gauging a catchment with flashy regime in the southern Lake District.

More detail

The catchment

High relief catchment drains impervious Pre-Cambrian to Silurian rocks where heather moorland and peat predominate. Carboniferous Limestone provides good grazing, especially south of Kendal on Drift cover. Heather moorland and peat predominate, and most land is grazed.

The station

Station opened October 1968, data held from November 1978. Compound broad-crested weir, 27m wide with 9.16m low flow notch 0.3m lower (widened from 3m in October 1994). Eel pass installed October 2014.

How it measures flow

Weir very prone to algal growth which can significantly affect lower levels and needs regular cleaning in summer. Very fast river with a steep gradient; weir may drown around 1.3m. No bypassing. Permanent cableway, which was moved from a poorer section in 1989 - so gaugings before then may be less accurate. Flows were not contained in notch prior to widening; rating was good before and after. Flood Studies Report grade A1. Two peak flow ratings applied across period of record, the most recent is valid from October 1994; rating below 2.2m derived from check gaugings and hydraulic modelling used beyond. Data presented after the installation of a non-standard sleeper V control on 07/11/1978 to stabilise the bed correcting earlier issues with low flow measurement.

Flow regime

Flashy, with widely fluctuating flows. Discharges from paper mill and Kendal sewage treatment works.

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
Gauging structure
Operating since
1968
Station datum
18.9 mAOD
Flow record
1968–2024 · 56 yrs · 99% complete
Peak-flow record
since 1968
Hydrometric area
73
Measured by
Environment Agency

Frequently asked questions

Is the River Kent at Sedgwick flooding today?

The current level is 0.18m, which is below the typical range. Flooding is very unlikely at this level.

Is the river level rising or falling at Sedgwick?

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.

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 Kent at Sedgwick?

The typical range at this station is 0.19m to 1.70m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 1.70m 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 →