About the UK network

The UK national network of sea level gauges was established after violent storms in the North Sea in 1953 resulted in serious flooding in the Thames Estuary.

The Tide Gauge Inspectorate at POL is responsible for modernising and maintaining this network, with the objectives of obtaining high quality tidal information through telemetry and to provide warning of possible flooding of coastal locations around the British Isles.

These data are required for research and operational use and to facilitate specific scientific studies of coastal processes such as tidal response, storm surge behaviour and sea level rise; and for underpinning local and national operational systems such as the Storm Tide Forecasting Service at the Met Office.

There are many types of tide gauge that have been developed over time with advancing technology. The interactive diagram explains how some of them work.

Tide gauge systems: Full tide bubbler | Half tide bubbler | Direct pressure
Tide gauges: Ott pneumatic gauge | Munro float gauge | Wellhead float gauge | Lea float gauge
Instruments: Dataring logger | Datum probe
Related links: Newlyn Tidal Observatory