UK Flood and River Monitoring Scraper

UK Flood and River Monitoring Scraper

Scrape UK flood warnings, river levels, and rainfall data from the Environment Agency's public monitoring service. Every station comes with its latest reading, and every flood alert includes severity, message, and affected area. No API key. Export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML.

The Environment Agency's flood warning system is the authoritative source for river levels, rainfall, and active flood alerts across England, Wales, and Scotland. This Actor reads that public data directly, so you get current measurements and warnings without building your own API integration or dealing with rate limits.

Who uses it	What they scrape UK Flood and River Monitoring for
Insurance risk analysts	Which postcodes currently have active flood warnings
Environmental consultants	River level trends for a specific catchment
Local authorities	Rainfall totals across their area during a storm
Journalists	Which towns are under flood alert right now
Researchers	Historical station readings for hydrological studies

What it does

This Actor collects monitoring stations and flood warnings from the Environment Agency's public feeds, and returns each station or warning as a flat row with its latest reading and metadata.

• 📡 Two collection modes: 'stations' returns river, level, rainfall, wind, and temperature monitoring stations with their latest reading. 'floods' returns active flood warnings and alerts.
• 🔍 Station filters: narrow stations by measured parameter, exact river name, or town before the run starts.
• 📊 Flat row output: every station or warning is one row, ready for CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML export.
• ⚡ No API key: the Actor reads the Environment Agency's public feeds directly, so you can start a run immediately.

Results export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML, or straight from the API.

What you can do with UK Flood and River Monitoring data

🚨 Monitor active flood warnings.

An insurance risk analyst runs the Actor in 'floods' mode every hour to see which postcodes currently have flood warnings, then flags affected policies for review.

📈 Track river levels over time.

An environmental consultant filters stations by river name 'River Thames' and parameter 'level' to collect daily readings for a catchment report.

🌧️ Measure rainfall during a storm.

A local authority runs the Actor in 'stations' mode with parameter 'rainfall' and town filter to get rainfall totals across their area during a storm event.

📰 Report on affected towns.

A journalist runs the Actor in 'floods' mode to list all towns under flood alert, then uses the affected area field to write a local news story.

Why choose this scraper

	What you get
Current flood warnings	Active alerts and warnings with severity, message, and affected area
River and rainfall data	Latest readings from level, flow, rainfall, wind, and temperature stations
No API key needed	Reads the Environment Agency's public feeds directly
Flexible filters	Filter stations by parameter, river, or town before collection

How it compares

No other Store actor targets UK Flood and River Monitoring the same way, so the honest comparison is with the alternatives teams actually weigh.

	UK Flood and River Monitoring Scraper	Build it in-house	By hand
Setup	Run it now, zero config	Days of engineering	None, but hours per pull
When UK Flood and River Monitoring changes	Maintained for you	You fix it	You re-learn the page
Proxies, retries, anti-bot	Built in	Your problem	Browser only
Output	Fixed JSON schema, CSV/Excel export	Whatever you build	Copy-paste
Cost	Pay per result	Engineering time	Analyst hours

Configure the run

Choose stations or floods, set a maximum number of measurements, and optionally filter stations by parameter, river name, or town. Flood warnings are returned unfiltered. The Input tab lists every parameter.

A first run with the defaults:

{
  "maxItems": 10
}

A larger pull:

{
  "maxItems": 200
}

Pricing

Pay-per-result: $0.004 per result collected. You pay only for the results written to your dataset.

Results collected	Approximate cost
100 results	$0.40
1,000 results	$4.00
10,000 results	$40.00

New Apify accounts start with $5 in free credit.

Free users

Free-plan runs return up to 10 results as a preview. Upgrade your Apify plan to collect up to 1,000,000 results per run.

Run it

1. Create a free Apify account with $5 in credit.
2. Open the UK Flood and River Monitoring Scraper.
3. Set your inputs and any filters, then click Start.
4. Export the results as CSV, Excel, JSON, or XML from the Dataset tab.

Run it programmatically through the Apify API (run-sync-get-dataset-items) or the ApifyClient for JavaScript and Python.

Use with AI agents (MCP)

Give an AI agent live access to UK Flood and River Monitoring through the Model Context Protocol. Add the Actor to Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client:

claude mcp add --transport http apify "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=parseforge/uk-flood-river-monitoring-scraper"

Then prompt it in plain language to run the scraper and read back the results.

Troubleshooting

Why am I getting no results?

Check your filters. If you set a river name or town, it must match exactly. Try clearing the filters and running again. Also check that 'maxItems' is not set too low.

Why are my station results missing some parameters?

Not all stations measure all parameters. A station may only measure level, or only rainfall. Use the parameter filter to narrow to stations that measure what you need.

Why do I get flood warnings when I asked for stations?

Make sure the 'mode' input is set to 'stations'. The default is 'stations', but if you changed it to 'floods' earlier, it will stay that way until you change it back.

Why is the river name filter not working?

The river name must match exactly, including capitalization and the word 'River'. For example, use 'River Thames', not 'Thames' or 'river thames'.

Why did the run stop before reaching maxItems?

The Actor stops when it has collected all available data that matches your filters. If there are fewer stations or warnings than your maxItems, it will finish early.

FAQ

Question	Answer
What is the difference between stations and floods mode?	Stations mode returns monitoring stations with their latest reading for parameters like level, flow, rainfall, wind, and temperature. Floods mode returns active flood warnings and alerts with severity, message, and affected area.
Do I need an API key from the Environment Agency?	No. The Actor reads the Environment Agency's public feeds directly, so you do not need to register for an API key or handle authentication.
Can I filter stations by river name?	Yes. In stations mode, set the 'river' input to an exact river name like 'River Thames'. The filter is case-sensitive and matches the river name as it appears in the Environment Agency's data.
Can I filter stations by town?	Yes. In stations mode, set the 'town' input to a town name like 'Reading'. The filter matches the town field exactly.
What parameters can I filter by?	You can filter stations by level, flow, rainfall, wind, or temperature. Leave the parameter empty to get all stations regardless of what they measure.
Are flood warnings filtered by river or town?	No. Flood warnings are returned unfiltered. The river and town filters only apply to stations mode.
How many measurements can I collect in one run?	You can set 'maxItems' to any number between 1 and 1,000,000. The Actor will stop after collecting that many measurements.
What format is the output?	Each station or flood warning is returned as a flat row. You can export the dataset to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML from the Apify platform.
Does this cover Scotland and Wales?	The Environment Agency covers England. Scotland and Wales have their own flood warning systems, but this Actor reads the Environment Agency's feeds, which may include some cross-border stations.
How often is the data updated?	The Environment Agency updates its feeds frequently, typically every 15 minutes for river levels and more often during flood events. The Actor reads the latest data at the time of the run.

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Browse the full ParseForge collection for more scrapers.

🆘 Need help? Email parseforge@protonmail.com with your run ID, your input, and what you expected.

⚠️ Disclaimer. This Actor is unofficial and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Environment Agency. It collects only publicly available data. You are responsible for using the collected data in compliance with the source's terms of service and applicable data-protection laws, including GDPR, CCPA, and PIPL. Do not use it to collect personal data unlawfully.