Articles | Volume 29, issue 20
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-5777-2025
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-5777-2025
Research article
 | 
28 Oct 2025
Research article |  | 28 Oct 2025

Characteristics of gauged abrupt wave fronts (walls of water) in flash floods in Scotland

David R. Archer, Felipe Fileni, Sam A. Watkiss, and Hayley J. Fowler

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Cited articles

Amengual, A.: Characterization of extreme flash floods in Mediterranean Spain, J. Hydrol., 659, 133229, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2025.133229, 2025. 
Archer, D. R.: Walls of Water, Circulation, British Hydrological Society, 44, 1–3, http://www.hydrology.org.uk/publications.php (last access: 11 October 2025), 1994. 
Archer, D. R. and Fowler, H. J.: Characterising flash flood response to intense rainfall and impacts using historical information and gauged data in Britain, J. Flood Risk Manag., 11, S121–S133, https://doi.org/10.1111/jfr3.12187, 2018. 
Archer, D. R. and Fowler, H. J.: A historical flash flood chronology for Britain, J. Flood Risk Manag., 14, e12721, https://doi.org/10.1111/jfr3.12721, 2021. 
Archer, D. R., Parkin, G., and Fowler, H. J.: Assessing long term flash flooding frequency using historical information, Hydrol. Res., 48, 1–16, https://doi.org/10.2166/nh.2016.031, 2017. 
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Short summary
Our intention is to highlight the unacknowledged and sometimes fatal hazard of rapid rate of rise in river level and flow. Using the full 15 min records of 260 Scottish gauging stations, we have extracted the maximum rates of 15 min rise in events generated by intense convective rainfall and described their characteristics in terms of the severity of the hazard within and between catchments. Events have all the properties of kinematic shock whose mere existence has previously been doubted.
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