North Tyne at Tarset (23005)

North Tyne at Tarset in Northumbria Area

• Station name

  Tarset

• NRFA reference

  23005

• Gauging authority

  North East

• Gauging authority reference

  023005

• Watercourse

  North Tyne

• Area

  Northumbria

• Hydrometric Area

  23 - Tyne

• NGR

  NY776861

• Catchment area and source of info

  284.9 km² Surface Water Arch.

• Station type

  FV VA

• FEH site

  Yes

• POT threshold

  136.35 m³/s

• Status

  Closed

• Station description

  Velocity-area station with cableway on straight, stable reach. Flat V (1:2 u/s and d/s slopes, 1:50 side slopes) weir for low flows installed in 1973. Left bank occasionally overtopped, right bank higher. Superseded by Ugly Dub (23022) in 1982, although operated until 1987 and a chart maintained until early 1990s. Flood Studies Report grade A1. Data since reservoir impoundment has been excluded from the dataset.

• Rating development

  Three ratings, established by current meter gauging, apply to periods before weir construction, during construction (temporary station) and after flat V weir completed.

• Indicative suitability for QMED

  Yes - Gauged just above QMED

• Indicative suitability for pooling

  Yes - Gauged to 81% of maximum recorded flow; possibly a small amount of bypassing and low-flow weir drowns, but gaugings above QMED support rating extrapolation.

• Catchment description

  An upland catchment of 285 km2, with moorland headwaters and significant afforestation below. Highest point in the catchment is at 600 mAOD. Natural flow regime until the construction of Kielder reservoir in 1980, which controls 80% of the catchment; subsequent flows are attenuated. Geology is Carboniferous series (Scremerston and Fell Sandstone Group), with thick Boulder Clay in the valleys. Hydrographs are well peaked. Land use is approximately 60% forest, the rest scrub, moorland and rough grazing.

• Artificial influences

  Kielder reservoir, constructed 1980, controls 85% of the catchment. Pre-reservoir FARL is 1.0 and should be used with the pre-reservoir part of the records. Post-reservoir FARL is 0.815.

• Catchment changes

  Kielder forest planting began in 1926 and has continuously increased during the record, to 500 km2 in 2003. Impounding of Kielder reservoir took 1.5 years and was completed in 1982..

• Station start

  01/09/1960

• Station closed

  09/07/1987

• Digital data start

  08/12/1964

• Digital data end

  26/12/1979

• Chart data start

  N / A

• Chart data end

  N / A

• CEH POT data start

  N / A

• CEH POT data end

  N / A

• Date of last update

  N / A

• Measured parameter

  stage

• How this is measured

  stilling well and float

• Bankfull stage

  2.74 m

• Height of wing walls

  0.32 m

• Maximum gauged flow

  251.59 m³/s

• Maximum gauged level

  3.26 m

• Primary purpose

  Pre-Kielder reservoir monitoring

• Method for gauging high flows

  Yes - cableway

• Any previous method

  N / A

• Relative Images

  Photograph 23005_1
  Photograph 23005_2