Lake District Water Levels Discussion Thread + Twitter Feed

[Jim Pullen]

Please use this topic for all questions/answers on current/predicted water levels in the Lake District.

As an aid Rainchasers has some excellent resources including web cams, EA gauges and local boaters' reports.

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[Jim Pullen]

Planning on doing this tomorrow. Anyone know what the level is like at the moment.
Ta

Perhaps take a look here and see what the readings for the Greta mean on this forum post.

[andy g]

Any ideas waht might be running weekend of Feb 7/8.
Mixed ability Group so we are looking for mainly 2/3 and possibly 4 minus.
Staying in Kirby in Furness so looking at Leven , Crake, Duddon , but having come from SE London we are prepared to travel to find water so possibly Lune?
Have looked at the Rainchasers webcams and everything seems very low , and presumably likely to stay that way until the snows melt.
Grateful for any local advice
Andy
Meridian CC

[Ed Lefley]

Leven is probably the best bet; certainly I think there is an open day (if you choose to paddle within the arrangements made on our behalf) on the sunday.

Hope that helps, otherwise it's look at the lake fed rivers (Crake etc) that might be running.

I'm up in the hills around Kirkby Lonsdale tomorrow, so I'll have a look at what the snow's doing... there is some disappearing off of the Yorkshire Hills, but I'm not sure on the hills in the Lake District, and I'll let people know what it's looking like.

[andy g]

Thanks Ed and Baz
We ran the Crake and racecourse section of the Leven on the Saturday, both were lacking water but runnable. On the Sunday we joined the Open day on the Leven and ran the racecourse but continued on through the bottom part of the run. Again the level was low, but there was enough water for a most enjoyable paddle.
Thanks again for your help
Andy

[Jim Pullen]

I see the Duddon gauge indicated high water levels yesterday. Any locals out there know whether it'll be going tomorrow?

[Jim Pullen]

Well to answer my own question - there was just enough water to get down the middle and lower sections. The gauge at the weir just after the Duddon Bridge rapid on the lower section was lapping at about 0.55m. If this corresponds to the gauge on the rainchasers site, I would say this represents a minimum flow for these sections. You would probably need at least another 0.1m for the Upper to be doable.

[Phil Connell]

What are the prospects for this weekend?

Mixed group so looking for some 2/3 and 4.

Will anything be paddleable?

[rvenab]

The forecasts are predicting differing amounts of rain for today/tonight.
Will it be worth making the trip across tomorrow or will rivers still be low?

[roli_twambley]

Hello,
Well Im up in Lancaster and it's been raining most of the day, but the rivers have been SO low lately. This is the waterline for the Kent area, 09066197733 it was on a 0.10 above yesterday, which is really low, about 0.40 above is medium water, which would be good, and if this or some of the other surroundig rivers have risen, they should be all right.
What rivers were you thinking of?

Regards,

Rosie

[rvenab]

I guess we were hoping some people would point us in the direction of rivers that may be running. We were hoping to do more then the Kent and Leven though. Sprint, Clough, that sort of thing. Or head North and have a look at Langstrath Beck. I'm guessing Lancaster is quite too far away from Keswick for you to know if it'll be wet there. Might Artle Beck be running?

[Rory W]

The gauges on Rainchasers suggest there's quite a bit of water about in the Lakes, anyone know if this is actually the case? Will it be worth us heading over tomorrow?

Thanks.

[Lancs_lad]

The Lune was up today, but no more rain till fri night sat morning so Im predicting only the bigger rivers will be up tomorrow.

[Rory W]

Cheers

[heybaz]

Drove past the Kent & Leven this afternoon, both would have gone but expect levels to be falling unless anything we have some rain tonight. Overcast in S Lakes now but doesn't bode well for rain....

Sorry can't bring better news

Barry

[Gyates]

Ive just driven from penrith to keswick, the greta is big and brown! at the moment, about a foot above the white line. Havnt seen any other rivers but it was pissing it down in borrowdale valley so my bet is the langstrath will defo be going.
Hope that helps alittle

[Agent Nomad]

Well after around 6 weeks of dry weather it is raining here and has been for most of the night

Trouble is there are no rivers near me as I am in North East Lincolnshire so has it rained is raining in the South lakes [Lune/Kent] or the Tees area? and what are the levels likely to be for Sunday morning?

[peakfreak]

Kent and Levens have water in but nothing too dramatic, a bit of rain is forecast so they should go tommorow.
Duddon is dry and I am just waiting on an update for the Keswick Greta. I'm heading up there myself tommorow so if nothing else is running the Kent and Levens will be good to get your head wet. ;-)

[Jim Pullen]

Anything likely to be up tomorrow?

About 15mm of rain forecast and I have the day off, any locals out there care to update in the morning?

[heybaz]

Still bright blue skies here in the West but gusty wind from the SW; no sign of any rain right now though. Apparently much the same in Ulverston at lunch time...

[Jim Pullen]

Yeah, heavy stuff not supposed to hit until after 10pm, so will have to keep my fingers crossed...

[Jim Pullen]

So did anything come up? If so is anyone available for a paddle this afternoon? - all my regulars seem to be working/in Scotland/looking after kids!

[heybaz]

Jim
Too late to be of use I guess, but after a lashing last night from 11 pm through to who-knows-when, the Ehen and Calder didn't appear to have come up at all compared to yesterdays levels. Maybe if there's more rain following things might start to change.

Did you get out? I guess the Leven would have been the only likely option...

[Jim Pullen]

Ended up doing two runs of the Kent with Tom W which was on a nice medium level, but had dropped lots by the time we got off at three. Tom said the Leven was empty. We also had a look at the Mint, but that had very little water in it.

On my drive back to this side of the Pennines, I went past the Rawthey which was going at a low level, I'm guessing it would have been better first thing, maybe tomorrow morning with a bit more rain it'll be back up. Also the Lune was well up.

The real surprise was when I drove past the Upper Swale (I took the scenic root after being nearly blown off the A66 on the way over), Wain Wath force was a curtain of water all the way across, with the Swale apparently going off! I didn't think the rain had made it across that far, but apparently so. This was at 5pm, so maybe another 10mm overnight will keep it going for tomorrow.

[Jim Pullen]

Can someone post up a report on what the Rawthey/Clough are up to at the moment? I'm assuming all this rain has reached there and dumped on those valleys? I'm thinking of paddling one or both tomorrow morning.

Reports on any other Lakes-based rivers also welcome!

[Mike M]

A very disappointing weekend on the Rawthey & Clough !! Despite all the rain no movement in either river & both at unpaddleable levels (lune & Dee also really low) Not sure where all the rain went !

Fingers crossed for this weekend

Mike

[Jim Pullen]

That was my conclusion when we turned up there on Sat! Bloody thirsty trees! Ended up on the Kent which seemed ok, let's hope for more H2O over the bank holiday.

[Ed Lefley]

Anyone got any ideas if the Rainchasers EA gauge has broken? Just tried to get on there and it's not working.

Also any ideas if anythings running this weekend in the South Lakes? It's been wet here in Blackpool.

[Rockrat]

Aira Beck went last night. Imagine the Leven and Kent could just about go Saturday, but there hasn't been much rain that way today.

[Ed Lefley]

Gauges are working again on the Rainchasers website, but not much running!