🌊 UK Flood and River Monitoring Scraper

🚀 Pull live UK river levels and flood warnings in seconds. Get the latest reading from thousands of Environment Agency monitoring stations plus every active flood alert across England.

🕒 Last updated: 2026-06-05 · 📊 18 fields per station record · National coverage (England) · Keyless open data

Track water levels, flow, and rainfall from the UK Environment Agency real-time flood-monitoring network, and watch flood warnings and alerts as they are raised. Each monitoring station returns its river, label, town, catchment, coordinates, measured parameter, unit, and the most recent reading with its timestamp. Each flood warning returns its area, severity, river or sea, county, and the full public message.

Coverage spans the Environment Agency station network across England, including river level gauges, flow gauges, and tipping-bucket rainfall gauges, along with live flood alerts, flood warnings, and severe flood warnings published through the official open service.

🎯 Target Audience	💡 Primary Use Cases
Hydrologists and environmental analysts	Track river levels and flood risk over time
Insurance and risk teams	Monitor flood exposure by area and severity
Developers and data engineers	Feed live water data into apps and dashboards
Researchers and journalists	Study flooding patterns and report on events
Emergency planners and local councils	Stay aware of active alerts in their region

📋 What the UK Flood and River Monitoring Scraper does

This Actor reads the UK Environment Agency Flood-Monitoring service and turns it into clean, structured records. In stations mode it lists monitoring stations and resolves the latest reading per station, so you get the current water level, flow, or rainfall value together with the reading time. In floods mode it lists active flood warnings and alerts with their severity and message. You can narrow station results by measured parameter, river name, or town.

🎬 Full Demo (🚧 Coming soon)

⚙️ Input

The Actor accepts a small set of options. Pick a mode, set how many records you want, and add optional filters for station searches.

Field	Type	Description
mode	string	stations for monitoring stations and latest readings, or floods for flood warnings and alerts.
maxItems	integer	How many records to return. Free plan is capped at 10.
parameter	string	Filter stations by measured parameter such as level, flow, or rainfall. Stations mode only.
river	string	Filter stations by exact river name, for example River Thames. Stations mode only.
town	string	Filter stations by town, for example Reading. Stations mode only.

Example 1: latest river levels for the River Thames

{
    "mode": "stations",
    "parameter": "level",
    "river": "River Thames",
    "maxItems": 25
}

Example 2: current flood warnings

{
    "mode": "floods",
    "maxItems": 50
}

⚠️ Good to Know: The number of flood warnings depends on real conditions. During calm weather there may be only a handful of active alerts, while storms can raise many. Station results are always available because the gauge network reports continuously.

📊 Output

Each station (or flood warning) becomes one record. Station records use the schema below.

Field	Description
🏷️ recordType	station or flood.
🔖 stationReference	Unique station code from the Environment Agency.
📌 label	Human readable station name.
🌊 riverName	River the station measures.
🏘️ town	Nearest town.
🗺️ catchmentName	Catchment the station belongs to.
📍 lat / long	Station coordinates.
📐 parameter	Measured parameter such as level, flow, or rainfall.
🏷️ parameterName	Friendly parameter name.
📏 unitName	Unit of the reading, for example mASD or mm.
📈 latestValue	Most recent reading value.
🕒 latestReadingDateTime	Timestamp of the latest reading.
🟢 status	Station status, for example Active.
📅 dateOpened	Date the station opened.
🔗 stationUrl	Source page for the station.
🕒 scrapedAt	When the record was collected.
❌ error	Null on success.

Three real sample records:

[
  {
    "recordType": "station",
    "stationReference": "1029TH",
    "label": "Bourton Dickler",
    "riverName": "River Dikler",
    "town": "Little Rissington",
    "catchmentName": "Cotswolds",
    "lat": 51.874767,
    "long": -1.740083,
    "parameter": "level",
    "parameterName": "Water Level",
    "unitName": "mASD",
    "latestValue": -0.354,
    "latestReadingDateTime": "2026-06-05T16:15:00Z",
    "status": "Active",
    "dateOpened": "1994-01-01",
    "stationUrl": "http://environment.data.gov.uk/flood-monitoring/id/stations/1029TH",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-06-05T17:04:27.897Z",
    "error": null
  },
  {
    "recordType": "station",
    "stationReference": "E2043",
    "label": "Surfleet Sluice",
    "riverName": "River Glen",
    "town": "Surfleet Seas End",
    "catchmentName": "Welland",
    "lat": 52.845991,
    "long": -0.100848,
    "parameter": "level",
    "parameterName": "Water Level",
    "unitName": "mASD",
    "latestValue": 0.851,
    "latestReadingDateTime": "2026-06-05T16:30:00Z",
    "status": "Active",
    "dateOpened": "1992-01-01",
    "stationUrl": "http://environment.data.gov.uk/flood-monitoring/id/stations/E2043",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-06-05T17:04:29.832Z",
    "error": null
  },
  {
    "recordType": "station",
    "stationReference": "52119",
    "label": "Gaw Bridge",
    "riverName": "River Parrett",
    "town": "Kingsbury Episcopi",
    "catchmentName": "Parrett, Brue and West Somerset Streams",
    "lat": 50.976043,
    "long": -2.793549,
    "parameter": "level",
    "parameterName": "Water Level",
    "unitName": "mASD",
    "latestValue": 0.44,
    "latestReadingDateTime": "2026-06-05T16:30:00Z",
    "status": "Active",
    "dateOpened": "1997-01-01",
    "stationUrl": "http://environment.data.gov.uk/flood-monitoring/id/stations/52119",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-06-05T17:04:30.039Z",
    "error": null
  }
]

✨ Why choose this Actor

• Official open data from the UK Environment Agency, no key needed.
• Latest reading resolved per station, not just the station list.
• Two modes in one tool, stations and flood warnings.
• Clean flat records, one row per station or warning.
• Filter stations by parameter, river, or town.

📈 How it compares to alternatives

Approach	Latest reading per station	Flood warnings	Clean structured rows	Filters
This Actor	Yes	Yes	Yes	Parameter, river, town
Raw API by hand	Manual per station	Separate calls	No, nested data	Limited
Generic web scraper	No	No	Often messy	No

🚀 How to use

1. Sign up for a free Apify account using this link.
2. Open the UK Flood and River Monitoring Scraper.
3. Choose stations or floods mode and set maxItems.
4. Add optional station filters for parameter, river, or town.
5. Run the Actor and collect your records from the dataset.

💼 Business use cases

Insurance and risk

Need	How this helps
Flood exposure by area	Pull active warnings with severity and county.
Trend monitoring	Sample station readings over time for risk models.

Environmental analysis

Need	How this helps
River level studies	Track level and flow values across catchments.
Rainfall context	Combine rainfall gauges with river readings.

Public sector and planning

Need	How this helps
Local alerting	Watch warnings raised in a given region.
Reporting	Build situational summaries from live data.

Apps and dashboards

Need	How this helps
Live water widget	Feed station readings into a map or panel.
Notifications	Trigger messages when warnings appear.

🔌 Automating UK Flood and River Monitoring Scraper

Connect this Actor to the tools you already use:

• Make and Zapier to route records into other apps.
• Slack to post new flood warnings to a channel.
• Airbyte to sync records into a warehouse.
• GitHub Actions to schedule pulls.
• Google Drive to archive snapshots.

🌟 Beyond business use cases

• Research: study flooding frequency and river behavior.
• Personal: keep an eye on a local river near your home.
• Non-profit: support community flood resilience projects.
• Experimentation: practice building data pipelines with live open data.

🤖 Ask an AI assistant

Paste your records into ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, or Copilot and ask it to summarize current flood risk, rank stations by level, or draft an alert.

❓ Frequently Asked Questions

Is the data official? Yes. It comes from the UK Environment Agency real-time flood-monitoring service.

Do I need an API key? No. The service is open and keyless.

What does stations mode return? Monitoring stations with river, town, coordinates, parameter, unit, and the latest reading.

What does floods mode return? Active flood alerts and warnings with severity, area, and the full public message.

Why do I sometimes see few flood warnings? The count reflects real conditions. In calm weather there may be only a few or none.

Can I filter stations? Yes, by parameter, river name, or town.

What parameters are available? Commonly level, flow, and rainfall, depending on the station.

What is the unit mASD? Meters above stage datum, a common reference for river level gauges.

How current are the readings? Most gauges report at regular intervals, often every 15 minutes.

Does this cover Scotland and Wales? The service covers England. Other nations run separate services.

How many records can I get? Free plans return up to 10. Paid plans return many more.

Is this affiliated with the Environment Agency? No. It is an independent tool that reads public open data.

🔌 Integrate with any app

Use the Apify API and the dataset to send records into spreadsheets, databases, BI tools, or custom apps.

🔗 Recommended Actors

• ParseForge collection for more open data and web scrapers.
• Weather and environmental data Actors for added context.
• Geocoding Actors to enrich station coordinates.

💡 Pro Tip: browse the complete ParseForge collection.

🆘 Need Help? Open our contact form

⚠️ Disclaimer: independent tool, not affiliated with the UK Environment Agency. Only publicly available data collected. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.