UK River Levels Screensaver

The Environment Agency operates a large network of monitoring stations across England, and its flood-monitoring service publishes the readings as open data. Most river stations record a water level, often called stage, and levels and flows are usually monitored every 15 minutes, although telemetry may be sent back less often outside periods of high flood risk. Stage is measured against a local reference point for that station, known as the stage datum, so it is not the depth at the deepest point of the channel.

For that reason you cannot compare absolute numbers between stations. A reading of two metres might be a gentle summer flow at one gauge and an alarming surge at another. What matters is how a level compares with that station’s own typical range, and whether it is rising or falling. Some stations also report flow, with units that vary by station, and coastal or tidal stations are included too.

The data covers England, where the Environment Agency operates; Scotland and Wales have their own agencies. Individual measures can update less often than the feed as a whole, and readings are sometimes missing when a sensor fails. The display is informative but is not a flood warning: official alerts are issued separately by the Environment Agency and should be followed from those sources.