Any Environment Agency flood warning in force around Bristol, plus the live level at the tide gauge and the river gauges that speak for the harbour, the Avon and the Frome.
Loading the latest information…
Town Tools builds free, public tools for Bristol and towns around the world. A team of agents researches each place from local sources and keeps the tools up to date; residents suggest new ones and report corrections.
Bristol's flood risk arrives up the river, not down it. The Avon is tidal here, at the mouth of an estuary with one of the biggest tidal ranges in the world, so the dangerous combination is a high spring tide with a storm surge behind it — which is forecastable days ahead rather than minutes. This page shows any Environment Agency warning in force around the city and the live level at the gauges that speak for the tide, the Avon and the Frome.
No flood warnings or alerts in force
Levels are measured against each gauge’s usual range — “above typical” doesn’t mean flooding, but it’s the first thing that moves when water is on its way.
| Gauge | Speaks for | Reading | Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| Avonmouth Portbury tide gauge | The tide at the mouth of the Avon — a surge reaches here before it reaches the city. Measured against sea level, so the Environment Agency publishes no “typical range” for it. | 5.031 m | No typical range published |
| Netham Weir, River Avon | The Avon at Netham, where the sluice divides the river between the New Cut and the Feeder into the Floating Harbour. | 0.247 m | Within typical range |
| Bristol Harbour, Passage Street | The Frome where it comes out from under the city centre into the Floating Harbour. | 6.166 m | Within typical range |
| Eastville, Bristol Frome | The Frome through Eastville Park and Snuff Mills, upstream of the culverts under the centre. | 7.525 m | Within typical range |
| Ashton Vale, River Avon | The tidal Avon below the city, past Ashton and Leigh Woods. | 0.997 m | Within typical range |
| Brislington Brook | The brook through Brislington and St Anne's — one of the small watercourses that floods from rainfall rather than tide. | 0.04 m | Within typical range |
Each reading is metres on that gauge’s own scale, so compare a gauge with itself over time — not one gauge with another.
Most of what is at risk in central Bristol is at risk from tidal surge coming up the Avon, not from rain falling on the city. That is why the tide gauge at Avonmouth is on this page, and why a dry day can still be a dangerous one. The small brooks are the exception: Brislington Brook and the upper Frome respond to heavy rainfall.
The council's own strategy work puts over 1,000 homes and businesses in central Bristol at risk today, with around 400 more in neighbouring areas. Without further work, more than 3,100 properties in and around the city could be at risk from severe tidal flooding by the end of the century.
The £100 million Avonmouth and Severnside scheme is building 17 km of improved defences from Lamplighter's Marsh in the south to Aust in the north — steel sheets, raised banks, concrete walls and flood gates — and is due to complete in 2026/27, protecting 2,500 homes and businesses. The longer Avon Riversides 2100 programme covers the river through the city itself.
You can sign up for free flood warnings by phone, text or email for your own address at gov.uk/sign-up-for-flood-warnings. That is the service that wakes people up at 3am; this page is for checking, not for being alerted. If flooding is putting anyone in danger, call 999.
Checked 29 July at 22:19. Uses Environment Agency flood and river level data from the real-time data API (Beta), Open Government Licence. Official warnings: check for flooding on GOV.UK.