River Levels & Flood Risk
Live Environment Agency gauge readings, flood warnings and water quality for the rivers around Southampton
Southampton sits where two chalk streams, the Itchen and the Test, meet the tide at Southampton Water — with the Hamble, Beaulieu and Lymington rivers close by along the Solent shore. This page pulls together live gauge readings from the Environment Agency, any current flood warnings for the area, and water quality information for the estuary and nearby coastline, all in one place.
● freshwater gauge ● tidal gauge ● Hamble (ungauged) — click a large marker to jump to its card below
Small dots are storm overflow outfalls: ● currently discharging ● not discharging ● monitor offline
Flood-alert pins: Severe Flood Warning Flood Warning Flood Alert
River Itchen
Riverside Park, Swaythling
River stage
1.41m
Within typical range
Typical range: 1.40m – 2.05m
Last 5 days
Reading at Wed 28 Oct, 20:15
Freshwater gauge in the city, just upstream of where the Itchen becomes tidal.
WFD ecological status: Good (Itchen)
Woolston (Itchen Estuary)
Tidal level
-0.35m
Within typical range
Typical range: -2.55m – 2.80m
Last 5 days
Reading at Wed 28 Oct, 21:30
Tidal reach where the Itchen meets Southampton Water, opposite the city centre.
WFD ecological status: Moderate (Southampton Water)
River Test & Southampton Water
Rivermead, Romsey
River stage
10.94m
Within typical range
Typical range: 10.68m – 12.00m
Last 5 days
Reading at Wed 28 Oct, 21:30
Freshwater gauge upstream at Romsey, well-known for its chalk-stream fishing.
WFD ecological status: Good (Test (Upper))
Eling, Totton
Tidal level
-0.34m
No typical range on file
Last 5 days
Reading at Wed 28 Oct, 21:30
Tidal reach at the head of Southampton Water, by Eling Tide Mill.
WFD ecological status: Moderate (Southampton Water)
Beaulieu River
Hartford, Beaulieu
River stage
1.34m
Within typical range
Typical range: 0.05m – 2.60m
Last 5 days
Reading at Wed 28 Oct, 21:30
Gauge on the Beaulieu River within the New Forest, upstream of Buckler's Hard.
WFD ecological status: Moderate (Beaulieu River)
Lymington River
Meerut Road, Balmerlawn
River stage
0.06m
Within typical range
Typical range: 0.03m – 0.37m
Last 5 days
Reading at Wed 28 Oct, 21:30
Upstream freshwater gauge near Brockenhurst, in the New Forest headwaters.
WFD ecological status: Good (Lymington River)
Lymington Harbour
Tidal level
0.11m
No typical range on file
Last 5 days
Reading at Wed 28 Oct, 21:30
Tidal reach through the town and marinas, out to the Solent.
WFD ecological status: Moderate (Lymington (tidal))
A note on the River Hamble
The Environment Agency has no water-level gauge on the Hamble — it's a short, largely tidal creek lined with marinas rather than a river prone to fluvial flooding, which is almost certainly why it was never instrumented. For Hamble water levels, the tide itself is the best guide (see Local Tides); for what's happening along its banks, see Southampton Area Marinas, which covers Port Hamble, Mercury and the other marinas on the river.
Water Quality
Two Environment Agency–classified bathing waters sit either side of these rivers' outflow into the Solent: Calshot, right at the Southampton Water entrance, and Lee-on-Solent, close to the Hamble mouth. Both are tracked with full detail, including the Environment Agency's official classification and short-term pollution risk forecast, on the Bathing & Sea Water Quality page.
For storm overflow status — whether a storm overflow is discharging right now, anywhere on these rivers or on Southampton Water itself — the table below queries Southern Water's own monitoring data directly, outfall by outfall, rather than linking out to a map:
0 of 63 monitored outfalls currently discharging
Across the Itchen, Test, Hamble, Beaulieu and Lymington catchments plus Southampton Water itself
| Status | Water body | Location | Last updated (UTC) |
|---|---|---|---|
| River Itchen | |||
| Not currently discharging | Itchen | 50.901, -1.388 | Fri 23 Oct, 17:37 |
| Not currently discharging | Itchen | 50.961, -1.371 | Thu 30 Apr, 11:00 |
| Not currently discharging | Itchen | 50.958, -1.335 | Thu 30 Apr, 11:00 |
| Not currently discharging | Itchen | 50.982, -1.356 | Wed 29 Jul, 08:40 |
| Not currently discharging | Itchen | 51.051, -1.318 | Thu 30 Apr, 11:00 |
| Not currently discharging | Itchen | 50.938, -1.356 | Tue 14 Jul, 08:00 |
| Not currently discharging | Itchen | 51.080, -1.298 | Thu 30 Apr, 11:00 |
| Not currently discharging | Itchen | 50.915, -1.390 | Mon 26 Oct, 16:19 |
| Not currently discharging | Itchen | 50.919, -1.388 | Sun 30 Aug, 19:57 |
| Not currently discharging | Itchen | 50.929, -1.381 | Wed 28 Oct, 01:16 |
| Not currently discharging | Itchen | 50.915, -1.379 | Sat 24 Oct, 18:39 |
| Not currently discharging | Itchen | 50.932, -1.381 | Tue 27 Oct, 14:16 |
| Not currently discharging | Itchen | 50.915, -1.389 | Fri 23 Oct, 07:18 |
| Not currently discharging | Itchen | 50.929, -1.381 | Tue 2 Jun, 13:06 |
| Not currently discharging | Itchen | 50.892, -1.384 | Thu 22 Oct, 11:56 |
| Not currently discharging | Itchen | 50.892, -1.384 | Sat 24 Oct, 20:39 |
| Not currently discharging | Itchen | 50.956, -1.296 | Thu 2 Jul, 12:56 |
| Not currently discharging | Tributary Of The River Itchen | 50.950, -1.300 | Sat 19 Sep, 07:26 |
| Not currently discharging | Tributary Of The River Itchen | 50.960, -1.403 | Tue 8 Sep, 12:45 |
| Not currently discharging | Tributary Of The River Itchen | 51.081, -1.175 | Thu 30 Apr, 11:00 |
| River Test | |||
| Not currently discharging | Test | 50.898, -1.411 | Sat 24 Oct, 16:59 |
| Not currently discharging | Test | 50.908, -1.442 | Sun 30 Aug, 19:57 |
| Not currently discharging | Test | 51.153, -1.449 | Mon 15 Jun, 09:42 |
| Not currently discharging | Test | 51.150, -1.456 | Thu 30 Apr, 11:00 |
| Not currently discharging | Test | 51.113, -1.499 | Fri 23 Oct, 17:37 |
| Not currently discharging | Test | 50.985, -1.504 | Thu 30 Apr, 11:00 |
| Not currently discharging | Test | 50.904, -1.451 | Fri 23 Oct, 09:37 |
| Not currently discharging | Test | 50.904, -1.451 | Sat 24 Oct, 22:00 |
| Not currently discharging | Test | 50.984, -1.503 | Thu 30 Apr, 11:00 |
| Not currently discharging | Test | 51.397, 0.554 | Tue 23 Jun, 04:12 |
| Not currently discharging | Test | 51.113, -1.489 | Wed 2 Sep, 11:52 |
| Not currently discharging | Test | 51.239, -1.385 | Mon 12 Oct, 14:00 |
| Not currently discharging | Un-named Tributary Of The River Test | 51.057, -1.520 | Tue 14 Jul, 08:00 |
| Not currently discharging | Un-named Tributary Of The River Test | 51.057, -1.520 | Tue 14 Jul, 14:10 |
| Not currently discharging | Un-named Tributary Of The River Test | 50.977, -1.455 | Fri 23 Oct, 08:39 |
| River Hamble | |||
| Not currently discharging | Hamble | 50.941, -1.231 | Sun 25 Oct, 03:17 |
| Not currently discharging | Hamble | 50.915, -1.285 | Sat 24 Oct, 16:59 |
| Not currently discharging | Hamble | 50.899, -1.269 | Thu 30 Apr, 11:00 |
| Not currently discharging | Hamble | 50.876, -1.317 | Tue 27 Oct, 19:16 |
| Not currently discharging | Hamble | 50.914, -1.269 | Sat 24 Oct, 17:08 |
| Not currently discharging | Hamble | 50.880, -1.320 | Tue 27 Oct, 11:36 |
| Not currently discharging | Hamble | 50.875, -1.316 | Tue 27 Oct, 08:36 |
| Not currently discharging | Hamble | 50.854, -1.314 | Sat 24 Oct, 17:59 |
| Not currently discharging | River Hamble | 50.911, -1.270 | Fri 23 Oct, 09:37 |
| Not currently discharging | Unnamed Tributary - River Hamble | 50.952, -1.260 | Tue 27 Oct, 08:57 |
| Not currently discharging | Unnamed Tributary Of The River Hamble | 50.961, -1.233 | Mon 19 Oct, 18:00 |
| Beaulieu River | |||
| Not currently discharging | Beaulieu | 50.819, -1.450 | Sat 24 Oct, 23:18 |
| Not currently discharging | Beaulieu | 50.815, -1.446 | Wed 28 Oct, 09:50 |
| Not currently discharging | Beaulieu | 50.877, -1.563 | Sat 23 May, 08:00 |
| Not currently discharging | Tributary Of Beaulieu River | 50.878, -1.561 | Tue 27 Oct, 17:16 |
| Lymington River | |||
| Not currently discharging | Lymington | 50.789, -1.546 | Mon 26 Oct, 11:57 |
| Not currently discharging | Lymington | 50.763, -1.537 | Thu 30 Apr, 11:00 |
| Not currently discharging | Lymington | 50.822, -1.563 | Sun 25 Oct, 11:37 |
| Not currently discharging | Lymington | 50.822, -1.563 | Sun 25 Oct, 01:57 |
| Not currently discharging | Lymington | 50.759, -1.536 | Fri 23 Oct, 07:40 |
| Not currently discharging | Lymington | 50.759, -1.536 | Thu 16 Jul, 07:36 |
| Not currently discharging | Lymington | 50.763, -1.537 | Thu 30 Apr, 11:00 |
| Southampton Water | |||
| Not currently discharging | Southampton Water | 50.870, -1.397 | Thu 30 Apr, 11:00 |
| Not currently discharging | Southampton Water | 50.829, -1.319 | Fri 9 Oct, 11:24 |
| Not currently discharging | Southampton Water | 50.873, -1.361 | Tue 1 Sep, 14:36 |
| Not currently discharging | Southampton Water | 50.856, -1.331 | Thu 30 Apr, 11:00 |
| Not currently discharging | Southampton Water | 50.828, -1.286 | Sun 25 Oct, 02:54 |
| Not currently discharging | Southampton Water | 50.833, -1.288 | Sat 24 Oct, 21:01 |
Source: Southern Water storm overflow monitoring data, via Water UK's Stream National Storm Overflow Hub (CC BY 4.0). Southern Water refresh this data every 5 minutes; this page checks it every 15. "Currently discharging" reflects the monitor's live status, not a prediction — a "not currently discharging" outfall may still have discharged recently, shown by its last-updated time.
Beyond Levels & Live Status
Live gauge readings and a live "is it discharging right now" status only tell part of the story. Two further, official sources give a fuller, longer-term picture of how healthy these rivers actually are:
Water Framework Directive status
The Environment Agency rates every stretch of river against the Water Framework Directive: an overall ecological status (High/Good/Moderate/Poor/Bad), reassessed periodically as part of national river basin management plans. It's the official long-term health check, distinct from a live reading or a moment-in-time storm overflow status - fetched live below (checked weekly, since it only changes on an annual review cycle at most), not just linked out to.
| Itchen | Good |
| Southampton Water | Moderate |
| Test (Upper) | Good |
| Beaulieu River | Moderate |
| Lymington River | Good |
| Lymington (tidal) | Moderate |
Chemical status isn't shown here - see the About box below for why. Each river card above also links straight to its own full official record on the Environment Agency's Catchment Data Explorer.
Annual sewage overflow history
The live status above only shows what's happening right now - a river with a clean "not discharging" status today can still have had a poor spill record over the year. For that fuller annual picture, Top of the Poops: River Itchen Estuary, River Test and the Beaulieu & Lymington rivers each have a running annual total of spill count and duration, built from the same Environment Agency Event Duration Monitoring data referenced above. Not embedded directly on this page out of respect for Top of the Poops' own request not to have their pages scraped - well worth a visit in their own right.
About this data
River levels and flood warnings are drawn live from the Environment Agency's flood-monitoring API, published under the Open Government Licence. Gauge readings update roughly every 15 minutes; this page caches each one for 15 minutes to stay in step without hammering the API.
"Typical range" is the Environment Agency's own long-term normal range for that gauge — a reading above it doesn't necessarily mean a flood is imminent, but it's worth keeping an eye on, especially alongside any flood warnings shown above.
Storm overflow status comes from Southern Water's own outfall-level monitoring, made available via Water UK's Stream data hub under the Open Government-style CC BY 4.0 licence.
Water Framework Directive ecological status is fetched live from each water body's own page on the Environment Agency's Catchment Data Explorer (Open Government Licence), checked weekly since it only changes on an annual review cycle at most. Chemical status is deliberately not shown: every water body in England is currently rated "Fail" on chemical status because of a handful of substances (mercury, PBDE flame retardants) present from atmospheric deposition nationwide, not local pollution - see the Environment Agency's own explanation of this. Each river card above also links to its own full official record for the complete picture, including chemical status, in context.
Annual sewage overflow totals are linked to Top of the Poops (CC BY-SA 4.0), built from the same Environment Agency data - not reproduced directly on this page, as their own site asks not to be scraped.
See also: Local Tides • Bathing & Sea Water Quality • Southampton Area Marinas • Solent Weather Buoys