Reading the river gauges

Start with our river page

First, the easy way: our river conditions page already reads the gauges for you, reach by reach, with a plain green, amber or red set by members who know what each number means on their stretch. For most trips, that's all you need. This guide is for when you want to read the raw numbers yourself — which, once it bites, is a surprisingly moreish habit.

Reading a gauge like a local

• The EA runs telemetry stations along the whole Great Ouse system, each reporting river level — except Offord, which reports flow in cubic metres per second. Both tell the same story from different ends.
• Look at the graph, not the number. A day, a week, a month: the trend is the forecast. A level that's high but falling is a different river from one that's lower but climbing.
• Every gauge has its own datum — its own private zero, unrelated to sea level or to the gauge upstream. Never compare readings between gauges; compare each gauge with its own history.
• Gauges stick. A reading that's flatlined for days, or is obviously absurd, is a broken sensor, not a calm river. Glance at the neighbouring stations before you believe anything dramatic.

Let the river ring you

Better than checking is being told. Sign up to the EA's river advice for boaters at visitanglianwaterways.org and the strong-stream and caution alerts arrive as they're issued — the Nene and the Bedford Ouse each have their own. The floodlines work from any phone: for the Ouse ring 0845 9881188, dial 1, then quickdial 033212 for Earith to St Ives or 033211 for St Ives to Bedford; for the Nene it's 0345 9881188, then 032112.

And if you've adopted a mooring, you already have the best alert of all — you're first to know when its gauge starts climbing.