Welcome to the National River Flow Archive
The National River Flow Archive (NRFA) is the UK’s focal point for river flow data.
The NRFA collates, quality controls, and archives hydrometric data from gauging station networks across the UK including the extensive networks operated by the Environment Agency (England), Natural Resources Wales, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and the Rivers Agency (Northern Ireland).
River flow data for ~400 gauging stations can be downloaded from this website. Data for a further ~1000 gauging stations can be requested via our manual retrieval service. The data are available free-of-charge for academic research or educational uses.
- Search for gauging stations, download river flow data, and access station and catchment information
- Find out about the data stored by the NRFA
- Find reports on current hydrological conditions, the status of water resources, and recent major flood and drought events
- Find out about the measurement of river flows in the UK
UK Hydrological summary for May 2013 published - 17 June 2013
May had a distinctly autumnal feel, continuing a pattern of below average temperatures that has persisted throughout spring 2013, while the majority of the UK received above average rainfall.
Further details can be found here.
New NRFA download service for NRFA catchment boundary data- 26 November 2012
The NRFA has released a new service allowing users to download catchment boundary data for UK gauging stations. Available via the ‘spatial data’ table on each gauging station page, the new service has been developed alongside the export facility for catchment maps which was launched in May 2012.
View an example spatial data page to try it out.
Find a station of interest using our gauging station search page.
Click here for an archive of NRFA news items



