Bristol Avon Little Avon Axe and North Somerset St catchment
• Trowbridge • Wiltshire • ID: 53122 • Level
(23m ago) • 3 readings/hr • 122 views
Set water level alerts
Get notified about Trowbridge — tick as many as you like, they all share the notify settings below.
Alert me when (tick one or more)
⤴Unusual rise — FloodRadar+Top 1% rise rate for this gauge.
Height for "Above a height"
Drag the line on the chart, or type a value:m
Quick pick:
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.
Notify by (tick one or more)
Your browser will ask permission, then you'll get a notification even when FloodRadar isn't open.
On iPhone: tap Share → Add to Home Screen first, then open it from there and set the alert.
Each one is saved as its own alert — pause or remove them individually any time.
Not an emergency service — if in danger call 999. Alerts rely on
EA/SEPA data and are best-efforts. Terms
Current Level
0.182 m
▬ Steady
24h Max
0.186 m
24h Min
0.176 m
Typical Range
0.17 - 1.40
m
Highest Recorded
2.10 m
30 Oct 2000
Since Jan 1984
Current level is 9% 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
Steady over 6h
24 Aug 00:30▬ steady0.182 m
24 Aug 00:00▬ steady0.182 m
23 Aug 23:45▬ steady0.182 m
23 Aug 23:30▬ steady0.182 m
23 Aug 23:15▬ steady0.182 m
23 Aug 23:00▼ -0.1 cm0.182 m
23 Aug 22:30▬ steady0.183 m
23 Aug 21:30▬ steady0.183 m
23 Aug 21:15▬ steady0.183 m
23 Aug 21:00▬ steady0.183 m
23 Aug 20:45▬ steady0.183 m
23 Aug 20:30▬ steady0.183 m
23 Aug 20:15▬ steady0.183 m
23 Aug 20:00▬ steady0.183 m
23 Aug 19:45▬ steady0.183 m
23 Aug 19:30▬ steady0.183 m
23 Aug 19:15▬ steady0.183 m
23 Aug 19:00▬ steady0.183 m
23 Aug 18:45▬ steady0.183 m
23 Aug 18:300.183 m
Rainfall & Weather
Loading rainfall and weather data...
Flood history near this gauge
Official Environment Agency warnings issued since 2009 for the 6 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 Trowbridge 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
🌊 Mixed responseA 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
0.53
mixed response
Avg Annual Rainfall
810 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +4% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
5.7%
partly urbanised
Median Annual Flood
12.05 m³/s
QMED — typical yearly peak flow
Highest Recorded Flow
16.02 m³/s
3 Feb 1990
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.
Flat V weir for low flows and concrete rectangular rated section for high flows. Runoff figures suggest topographical and groundwater catchment areas do not coincide.
More detail
The catchment
Moderate relief catchment situated along Frome gap. Drains Chalk escarpment to the south-east with underlying geology of Jurassic clays. Predominant land use is arable farming, but contains towns of Trowbridge and Westbury. Runoff figures suggest topographical and groundwater catchment areas do not coincide. No major changes to catchment.
The station
Station is located in the centre of Trowbridge and was opened in 1984. Flat V weir (1:10) for low flows, then concrete rectangular rated section (high flows), 7.13m wide, set in deep culvert with vertical walls. Ultrasonic gauge installed 12/2006.
How it measures flow
Good approach, large downstream fall. Backing up from downstream due to debris. Rating for this station was reviewed in 2001. Previously two ratings existed for this station, the first was used from 1984 to 1992 based on theoretical rating for the weir. The second rating was fitted to the gaugings and used from 1992. Now one rating is applied across period of record; reviewed in 2011. A new top limb was derived using plot points from a time of flight ultrasonic installed at the site.
Flow regime
Moderate influences at low flows by abstractions & discharges.
The flow record
First few months to 11/03/1984 not included because of apparent datum change (higher levels in earlier record) and short gap. Full period of record peak flow data reviewed and released in September 2020 (WINFAP Files v9) and in August 2024 (WINFAP Files v13).
How this gauging station is built and how long it has measured (NRFA / UKCEH).
Gauge type
Flat-V weir
Operating since
1984
Station datum
32.0 mAOD
Flow record
1984–2024 · 40 yrs · 100% complete
Peak-flow record
since 1984
Hydrometric area
53
Measured by
Environment Agency
Nearby Groundwater
Soil Moisture
Possible storm-overflow correlation
🚽 Storm overflows on this river
Frequently asked questions
Is the River Biss at Trowbridge flooding today?
The current level is 0.18m, which is within the typical range of 0.17 to 1.40m. Flooding is unlikely at this level.
Is the river level rising or falling at Trowbridge?
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 Biss at Trowbridge?
The typical range at this station is 0.17m 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.
Embed this gauge on your website
Free live river-level widget — ideal for parish councils, angling clubs and local sites. Updates automatically.
Preview
📮 Flood risk by postcode near this gauge
Postcodes within 5 km with properties in the Environment Agency’s rivers-and-sea flood-risk bands:
Biss at Trowbridge (53029) View of weir from Upstream
Trowbridge weir viewed from upstream (Dec 2010)
