NORTH EAST WATER LEVELS

[Jim Pullen]

Please use this topic for all North East related water level questions and answers!

EDIT: A new England and Wales calibrated river levels site is now available: Rainchasers
This has many calibrated gauges for the northeast.

River Call North East Number: 09066197722

Twitter Feed

To send in a tweet, simply start with #ukrgb, [river name] where river name can be Tees, Swale, Wharfe, Tyne, Wear, Coquet or Ure (e.g. #ukrgb, Tees). If anyone wants any others added please pm me. If you prefer just adding posts about the river levels please add these in this topic below.

UK Rivers Guidebook - follow us on Twitter

EA Gauges

All calibrations are subjective. Low means floatable, things may go at a scrape a bit lower. High means a good fast flow, all rocks covered - in some cases rivers will remain paddleable at much higher readings. Please contribute if you know better or can fill in any gaps.

Tees at Barnard Castle Low: 0.70m Medium: 0.90m High: 1.20m
South Tyne at Alston Low: 0.60m Medium: 1.10m High: 1.30m
North Tyne at Reaverhill Low: 1.20m Medium: 1.80m High: 2.50m
Wear at Wearhead Low: 0.80m Medium: 1.00m High: 1.20m
Swale at Park Bridge Low: 0.50m Medium: 0.70m High: 0.90m
Wharfe at Grassington Low: 0.30m Medium: 0.50m High: 0.75m
Ure at Masham Low: ?????m Medium: ????m High: 1.70m
Coquet at Alwinton Low: ????m Medium: ?????m High: ????m

River Wear Info

Stanhope gauge needs to be >1ft for the upper, with >2ft for starting at the waterfall. The phone gauge seems to correspond with this, but is in metric (0.35/0.7m respectively), but remember this is at ~3am, so the river level will have changed by the time you get there. The EA Stanhope gauge should be comparable.

Tyne Info

Note the Fish Tyne live water levels. Also note the proposed Kielder releases.

North Tyne needs >1'8" at Reaverhill, Allen needs >1'4" at Bluebeck. Not sure on South Tyne, but probably >1'6".

[Wilf]

I don't remember such an interesting stopper at the bottom of Abber Rapids in low-ish water. It upset a few people yesterday! It has a real good kick to the right hand side.





W

[DaveC37]

Does anyone know if there is likely to be enough water to paddle the Middleton to Cotherstone section of the Tees over the weekend (3 & 4 January 09)?
Cheers, Dave

[Wilf]

Yes, there will be, but in one or two places where the river widens, you will get stuck.

A better trip would be Whloton to Winston at this level.

[DaveC37]

Cheers Wilf. What's the access like at Wholton?

[Wilf]

Easy peasy if you know where to go.

Get on from River left, the windy road down from the hill. On the hairpin bend there is a footpath that will take you straight to the river.

Enjoy!

[stevecane]

We did the easy bit of the middle tees today, Cotherstone to Barney, and the level was really cool. Not boney at all considering when it last rained, guess they must be releasing from Cow Green. Have fun...

Steve

[amelia]

Does anyone know whether the river is likely to be paddleable from Cotherstone to Winston this weekend (10/11th Jan)? Expecting it to be low, but don't really want to drive up if I'm going to spend more time walking than paddling! Cheers.

[MattBibbings]

Jim,

Is it worth sticking this number in at the top of this thread. Its the River Call North East informetion line.

09066197722

[Jim Pullen]

Yep, I was thinking about doing that. This also has the Swale as an option on the list at the start. Be warned its a premium rate number and profits go towards something fishy.

While we're on this subject - does anyone know what the levels given on the River Call service actually correspond to from a kayaker's perspective? What's a sensible minimum, etc?

[MattBibbings]

Yep, I was thinking about doing that. This also has the Swale as an option on the list at the start. Be warned its a premium rate number and profits go towards something fishy.

While we're on this subject - does anyone know what the levels given on the River Call service actually correspond to from a kayaker's perspective? What's a sensible minimum, etc?

This was my take on the River level data given on the EA line. It is a difficult thing to interpret but given that it is the only up-to-date and reliable river level information (without standing on a bank and looking!), it's worth persisting.

[Jim Pullen]

Thanks Matt, that's very useful - I must have missed that topic first time round.

[Jim Pullen]

Looked to be a decent amount of water in the racecourse section today as I drove over it! Lune also had some water (Grassholme had water coming over it - has any naughty individual tried that spillway before?), not enough water for Eggleston beck to run, Hudeshope would have gone at a scrape.

Edit: Chucking it down up here now, I imagine everything will be going tomorrow!

[Jim Pullen]

Andy waddington put a link up to his page about Tees water levels in a topic that I've now "tidied": http://pennine.demon.co.uk/photos/whitewater/abbeycam/abbeypix.htm

[Andy B (of MCC)]

Let's kick off this thread then....
Thinking of doing the Wharfe this weekend (25th Jan).
Anyone have an update on levels?

Thanks,

Andy

[coley]

Not a weahter boff but I think that there should be a good mid level

[Carter]

Heading to Grassington for the weekend tonight and am hoping to do the Wharfe. Does anyone know what the levels will be doing over the next couple of days?
Thanks
Carter

[Jim Pullen]

The Tees looked low but runnable from High Force down, with a couple of groups on the HF-LF section today (Grrr, jealous - bloody shoulder!)
Some snow on the ground - I guess a lot of the ground water has frozen and will probably get worse over the next few days due to temperatures dropping. Should still be ok for tomorrow.

[stevecane]

Paddled down from Winston yesterday, water level was low but better than it looked.

[rvenab]

Does anybody know if this will be up in the next couple of days?
Thanks

[Big Henry]

How is this weather affecting the level of the Tees at the moment? Is all the water being 'trapped' in the snow, so levels are low, or is there a reasonable amount in the river?

[Rory W]

Same question again...

Any guesses what's happening up in Teesdale/Weardale/Swaledale? It's melting pretty fast here in Durham in the sun.

What will be the best day? This afternoon, tomorrow or Sunday?

Thanks

[Jim Pullen]

Any guesses what's happening up in Teesdale/Weardale/Swaledale? It's melting pretty fast here in Durham in the sun.

What will be the best day? This afternoon, tomorrow or Sunday?

The gauge at Barney was only at 0.07 at 3 this morning according to the Rivercall number. There's still a lot of snow on the ground around my house on the edge of Darlington, so I'm guessing nothing much will have melted higher up the dales. Maybe tomorrow or Monday for the bulk of the snowmelt to start?

If anyone higher up the Tees can visually confirm my suspicions I'd be grateful!

[Rory W]

0.093 at 3.15 this morning.

Don't suppose anyone's seen the Tees since then? It's much warmer here today.

Anyone know if the Rivercall system updates during the day? Or is the only reading at 3 in the morning?

Thanks.

[Wilf]

Tees suprisingly up today, Greta was going like a train.

W

[Jim Pullen]

Tees suprisingly up today, Greta was going like a train.

Interesting....

I did notice that the mighty Skerne was in full flow yesterday, but that was due to all the snow round us melting fast, I assumed that the stuff up on the Pennines wouldn't have gone yet - clearly mistaken!

Anyone know if the Rivercall system updates during the day? Or is the only reading at 3 in the morning?

Whenever I've used it, either for the Tees or the Swale, it seems to only give a reading for the middle of the night. With the Tees, there are three readings given for various points along its length. The Barnard Castle one has been used as the best guide till now, with a minimum suggested as 0.15, however the one at Broken Scar (Darlington) may be useful to note as this will be affected by any major contribution from the Greta. When I rang the Rivercall number on Saturday, the reading given for this one was 0.2, which I guess indicated that the sections above would be too low. Anyone got any better idea of a calibration for this one? Or if not can people start making a note of what the two readings are when they call the number and record them on this thread together with observed river levels? Hopefully we can get some better idea of a calibration then - cheers!

[RobHel]

Ran the Upper yesterday (Sun, 15th Feb), was quite high. Lots of snow still on the fields so I'm guessing it will be in play for the next couple of days if the temperature stays high.

[stevecane]

Tees was BIG today, guess the big melt has finally reached the river...

[peterpunkgoose]

Hi Thinking of runing the wharfe tomorow 18th feb any one know what the level is like I know it was high on the 16th with the snow melt but unsure now

any info much appreciated

Pete

[Andy B (of MCC)]

Have the levels dropped now?
I'm told the Yorkshire rivers are all low again, so hoping there will be something running this weekend (grade 3).

Andy