Check annual maximum flow availability, station suitability and catchment descriptors before flood-frequency analysis. Compare listed sources, access requirements and evidence for peak river flow and amax data.
EA observations support record checks but do not replace NRFA peak-flow suitability assessments; verify rating changes and suitability for pooling.
Discover sources with MCP
Add this server to an HTTP-compatible MCP client, then call get_source to inspect the first source. The tool call is shown separately from the client configuration. Review upstream access details before requesting data.
Test service: URL patterns, parameters and data formats may change before an operational release · No access controls currently, but this may not always be the case · Time-series requests accept only a single station and a single data-type per call · Update schedule is referenced on the NRFA site but not stated in the docs
river flow 15-min instantaneous (m3/s) · river flow daily mean/min/max (m3/s) · river level 15-min instantaneous (m) · river level daily min/max (m) · rainfall 15-min total (mm) · rainfall daily total (mm) · groundwater level dipped (mAOD) · groundwater level logged, sub-daily (mAOD) · water quality 15-min instantaneous: dissolved oxygen (% and mg/L), fDOM (RFU), blue-green algae (RFU), turbidity (NTU), chlorophyll (µg/L), conductivity (µS/cm), temperature (°C), ammonium (mg/L), nitrate (mg/L as N), pH
Coverage llm-inferred
England
Resolution docs-verified
typically 15 min (sub-daily) and daily
Formats docs-verified
JSON · CSV · GeoJSON · HTML · RDF/XML · Turtle
Access llm-inferred
No authentication (per catalogue); free; Open Government Licence 3.0
Useful for
Use cases llm-inferred
FRA baseline flows and levels from nearest gauge · Rainfall and river level context for flood event review · Groundwater level baseline for site investigation or geotechnical assessment · Water quality baseline (dissolved oxygen, turbidity, nitrate) for ecological or pollution assessment
Hard limit of 2,000,000 rows per call that cannot be overridden; soft limit of 100,000 rows per call (overridable with _limit) · Hard limit is subject to review and may be reduced if the service is overloaded · Bulk downloads should use the batch API; otherwise keep to one non-batch request in flight at a time · Concurrency limits may be enforced per IP address, and excessive demand may lead to blocking · Logged groundwater sub-daily values may mix 15-min and hourly intervals · Station identifiers are not always unique; some stations need a composite key with a wiskiID · HTML views are intended for debugging and development, not for presentation to consumers
UKCEH Flood Estimation Handbook design rainfall depth-duration-frequency estimates (FEH22), catchment descriptors and boundaries for UK hydrology, drainage design and flood risk assessment.
What's in it
Data offered docs-verified
catchment descriptors · catchment rainfall DDF (FEH22, FEH13, legacy FEH99), catchment average · catchment boundaries (ESRI shapefile) · point soil and climate descriptors (XML) · point rainfall DDF (FEH22, FEH13)
Coverage docs-verified
UK (England, Scotland & Wales, Northern Ireland); catchments above 0.5 km² and any mapped point
Resolution docs-verified
Catchment DDF at nearest 1 km grid location; point data accurate to 1 m
Formats docs-verified
XML · CSV · CD3 · ESRI shapefile · PNG · interactive graph export (CSV or image)
Access docs-verified
Paid subscription: pay-as-you-go credits with discounts for prepaid bundles (ENTRY: auth subscription, licence Commercial). Educational and research use has no DDF charge, with a £150 (ex VAT) set-up fee and 1,000 initial credits.
Useful for
Use cases llm-inferred
FRA design rainfall from FEH22 DDF for a catchment-average design event · Drainage strategy rainfall inputs at a site using point DDF (FEH22) with ReFH 2 · Plot-scale runoff rate estimation from point soil and climate descriptors · Catchment descriptor and boundary extraction for flood estimation reports
Catchment-level data only for catchments above 0.5 km² · FEH99 rainfall depth/rarity values and DDF parameters are not available for points · Purchased data cannot be shared with other user accounts · Educational and research use is limited to teaching or non-commercial research · Paid access; purchased data is tied to the purchasing account
Which listed sources support Peak river flow and AMAX data?
Start with NRFA API, EA Hydrology API, FEH Web Service. Check annual maximum flow availability, station suitability and catchment descriptors before flood-frequency analysis.
What should I check before using these sources for peak river flow and amax data?
EA observations support record checks but do not replace NRFA peak-flow suitability assessments; verify rating changes and suitability for pooling.
How do I inspect NRFA API through MCP?
Connect an MCP client to https://terramcp.earth/mcp and call get_source with slug nrfa-api. Review its provenance, access requirements and limitations before contacting the upstream service. Discovery does not make every listed source directly executable through the router.
Are these sources free and independently verified?
Access and licence terms belong to each upstream provider; some products require registration or payment. Open each listing for evidence, health status and enrichment provenance. A wrapper and its underlying API can refer to the same dataset and are not independent observations.