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Water Level Rising
Up 0.14 m since 15:30, still rising (0.02 m/h)
0.99

Water Eaton

Ray
Vale of White Horse catchment • Cricklade • Wiltshire • ID: 0390TH • Level
(33m ago) • 4 readings/hr • 148 views

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Not an emergency service — if in danger call 999. Alerts rely on EA/SEPA/NRW data and are best-efforts. Terms

Current Level
0.993 mASD
▲ Rising (+2cm/hr)
24h Max
1.040 mASD
24h Min
0.851 mASD
Typical Range
0.63 - 1.90
mASD
Highest Recorded
2.68 mASD
EA official record
A 4.76 reading (27 Feb 2025) sits in our unverified raw history and is not treated as the record
Current level is 37% of this
Current Flow
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🚽 Sewage overflows nearby

Recent Water Levels

🌍 floodradar.co.uk
1 day

Recent Readings

Rising · +13 cm over 5h
09 Oct 22:30 ▲ +0.4 cm 0.993 mASD
09 Oct 22:15 ▲ +0.4 cm 0.989 mASD
09 Oct 22:00 ▲ +0.4 cm 0.985 mASD
09 Oct 21:45 ▲ +0.4 cm 0.981 mASD
09 Oct 21:30 ▲ +0.6 cm 0.977 mASD
09 Oct 21:15 ▲ +0.6 cm 0.971 mASD
09 Oct 21:00 ▲ +0.6 cm 0.965 mASD
09 Oct 20:45 ▲ +0.7 cm 0.959 mASD
09 Oct 20:30 ▲ +0.8 cm 0.952 mASD
09 Oct 20:15 ▲ +0.8 cm 0.944 mASD
09 Oct 20:00 ▲ +0.9 cm 0.936 mASD
09 Oct 19:45 ▲ +0.8 cm 0.927 mASD
09 Oct 19:30 ▲ +0.8 cm 0.919 mASD
09 Oct 19:15 ▲ +1 cm 0.911 mASD
09 Oct 19:00 ▲ +0.8 cm 0.901 mASD
09 Oct 18:45 ▲ +0.8 cm 0.893 mASD
09 Oct 18:30 ▲ +0.8 cm 0.885 mASD
09 Oct 18:15 ▲ +0.7 cm 0.877 mASD
09 Oct 18:00 ▲ +0.7 cm 0.870 mASD
09 Oct 17:45 0.863 mASD

Station Details

  • Monitoring Station: Water Eaton
  • Watercourse: River Ray
  • Nearest Town: Cricklade
  • County: Wiltshire
  • Coordinates: 51°38'25"N 1°49'36"W (51.640170, -1.826539)
  • Open in: Google Maps · Apple Maps (opens your maps app)
  • Date Opened: 1 Jan 1986
  • Status: Active
  • Station Type: River level station
Technical details: references, datum, range, flow archive
  • Station Reference: 0390TH
  • RLOI id: 7020 (the EA's check-for-flooding station id)
  • EA Gauge ID: 0390TH-level-stage-i-15_min-mASD
  • Parameter: Level
  • Unit: mASD
  • Typical rise rate: 4 cm/hr (p95 sustained over 90 days)
  • Typical data delay: ~22 min (measured reading→publication lag)
  • Tidal: No
  • Lock / structure: No
  • Catchment Area: Vale of White Horse
  • Typical Range: 0.625 – 1.901 mASD
  • Drainage Area: 84 km² upstream of this gauge
  • 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
  • EA Cross-check: 0.99 mASD (EA at 9 Oct 22:15)
  • 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.

Nearby Stations

Gauges connected to this river, and others nearby. A distance “by river” follows the river on the map; any other is in a straight line.

Connected upstream

Connected downstream

Same river system, separate branch

Nearby

Distances by river: OS Open Rivers. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database rights 2026.

💧 Storm overflows upstream of this gauge

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.

1 storm overflow is traced upstream of this gauge, the nearest 10.7 km away along the river. 0 report discharging now, 1 reports not discharging.

💧
Thames Water · into River Ray · 10.7 km upstream along the river
23 spills · 288 hours in 2025
Not discharging now · last

Nearby, connection not known

Within 6 km in a straight line, but the river map cannot say whether their water passes this gauge.

💧
Thames Water · into Tributary Of Share Ditch · 3.5 km away in a straight line · its watercourse is not on the river map
9 spills · 54 hours in 2025
Not discharging now · last
💧
Thames Water · into Bydemill Ditch · 5.6 km away in a straight line · its watercourse is not on the river map
8 spills · 14 hours in 2025
Not discharging now · last

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 →

Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database rights 2026.

Rainfall & Weather

Loading rainfall and weather data...

How often this river runs high

In a typical year this gauge reaches its typical high of 1.90 m on about 73 days. This year so far: 50 days.

2026 50 days, 1 of them high · 1 high so far
2025 49 days, 4 of them high · 4 high
2024 131 days, 20 of them high · 20 high
2023 129 days, 18 of them high · 18 high
2022 27 days, 1 of them high · 1 high
2021 49 days, 4 of them high · 4 high
2020 104 days, 7 of them high · 7 high
2019 92 days, 5 of them high · 5 high
2018 0 days
2017 0 days patchy data

Counted from each day's highest reading. Days with missing or implausible readings are left out, so a year marked patchy may have run high more often than shown. The darker part is days above 2.44 m, the level this gauge tops only a few days a year.

Flood history near this gauge

Official Environment Agency warnings issued since 2008 for the 13 flood areas linked to this gauge (nearest 3.0 km away).

14flood warnings 314flood alerts

Most recent flood warning: 14 Nov 2025 — South Marston Brook at South Marston

Year by year
YearWarningsAlerts
2026 0 10
2025 1 19
2024 3 25
2023 7 33
2022 0 6
2021 0 15
2020 1 14
2019 1 28
2018 0 19
2017 0 18
2016 1 23
2015 0 13
2014 0 21
2013 0 11
2012 0 26
2011 0 6
2010 0 11
2009 0 9
2008 0 7

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 Cricklade flood history.

Flood areas linked to this gauge

Flood warnings and alerts are issued for whole areas. These are the 13 areas linked to this gauge, nearest first.

Show 5 more

Catchment Character

🌊 Urban & flashy Heavily 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
0.39
mixed response
Avg Annual Rainfall
745 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +7% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
17%
heavily urbanised
Highest Daily Mean Flow
22.60 m³/s
27 Sep 1974 · daily mean, not the instantaneous peak
Flow-Duration Curve
mean 1.424.260.9000.4665% (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 6%Grassland 45%Arable 8%Urban 40%
Grassland 58% → 45% since 1990

Flow affected by: groundwater abstraction, effluent returns.

About this gauge

A ultrasonic gauging station located on the River Ray, in the upper Thames catchment.

More detail

The catchment

The Ray rises in the Marlborough Downs and drains a relatively flat, mainly impervious, catchment. Largely agricultural land use but very substantial and growing urban component (Swindon).

The station

Multi-path US superseded (in 1989) a Crump weir (width: 5.195m) with crest and d/s recorders.

Flow regime

Responsive regime. Flows heavily influenced by Swindon runoff (sewage effluent, balancing ponds etc.). A net import of water results.

The flow record

Thames backwater caused frequent drowning and high submergence ratios thus flood data are of limited precision.

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
Ultrasonic
Operating since
1974
Station datum
75.9 mAOD
Flow record
1974–2024 · 50 yrs · 98% complete
Hydrometric area
39
Measured by
Environment Agency

Frequently asked questions

Is the River Ray at Water Eaton flooding today?

The current level is 0.99m, which is within the typical range of 0.63 to 1.90m. Flooding is unlikely at this level.

Is the river level rising or falling at Water Eaton?

Based on the most recent readings, the level is currently rising. 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 Ray at Water Eaton?

The typical range at this station is 0.63m to 1.90m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 1.90m 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.

Embed this gauge on your website

Free live river-level widget — ideal for parish councils, angling clubs and local sites. Updates automatically.

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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, recorded floods, warning history, river behaviour and nearby storm overflows. £19 one-off. Learn more →