River Levels - FishPal or SEPA

[SnapTcaster]

Could anyone shed some light on this apparent discrepency....
Having been washed off at Rutherford today, I checked the websites to see if the Tweed was going up or down.

FishPal states that the height at Peebles is 4ft 10, yet SEPA say it's 1. 604 metres.

If I have done my maths correctly, 4ft 10inches is 58 inches.... which works out to be 1.48m.

1.604 m works out at 5ft 3inches. So there's either a difference of 12 cms or 5 inches....which, ironically, does work out.

Which is the more accurate....as you can see, I am at a loose end!!

Biffo

[cammy]

No I can't explain it other than the readings may have been taken at different times?

FishPal readings come from SEPA.

[fishpal]

Guys,

I can explain.

The SEPA reading is the absolute river level ie from the bottom of their gauge to the reading recorded.

The FishPal levels are the heights over the Mean Summer Low for each specific gauging station. Each station has what is called a Q95 value which is the level the river is at only 5% of the time, i.e. the mean summer low. At Peebles the Q95 value is 127mm.

If you add the Q95 to the level we display you will find that the readings are identical.

I have asked my IT guys to think of some suitable explanation to clarify this for future reference.

Hope that helps.

Iain Wood
Fishpal

[SnapTcaster]

Thanks for that Iain