Thames conditions

Thames

The EA provides information on the web about what's happening but it's hard to find and hard to make sense of. This site tries to bring stuff together so you can see what's likely to happen in the near future. There is a map of the Thames showing the warning state for each stretch, or you can focus on how the river level is changing where you are and further up the river. The history of rainfall, river flows and levels is also there.

Here's how high the river rose over the last two winters, at one point along it:

Spring 2014 saw the largest amount of rainfall over a three month period since records began in the Thames valley.
It tested the flood relief system for Maidenhead and Windsor, the Jubilee River, severely. As can be seen here, it controlled the flow most of the time, but its capacity was overwhelmed on two occasions. The flow in relief (Jubilee) river has been calculated by subtracting the flow through Maidenhead from the flow through Windsor Park. That gauge broke down at a critical point so we've included the Staines flow, which is very similar, and extrapolated.

Spring flows at Maidenhead

The government has now confirmed plans for the relief channel further down proposed in 2010, but construction won't start until 2020 or be finished before 2025. The government is offering to pay less than half the total cost of £476m.

I'm Chris Moss, a retired lecturer who is living by the Thames at Bourne End.

Sailing

Between 2000 and 2004 my main occupation was sailing a 29' boat to the Mediterranean and back. I've chronicled the trip here.

Barging

Between 2005 and 2009 I lived on a Dutch barge, Watergeus, and travelled around England and Ireland. My trips then and in the last few years are shown here.

Contact me