Flood risk in CA11 (Penrith)
Of the 1,118 postcodes in CA11 – covering Penrith – 39 (3.5%) have their centre in Flood Zone 3 and 22 (2%) in Flood Zone 2, on the Environment Agency’s Flood Map for Planning.
The Zone 3 share is below the England average of 5.6%, and below the Cumbria figure of 4.5%.
Most of the district is in Flood Zone 1, but the postcodes in Zones 2 and 3 tend to cluster along rivers, streams and low-lying ground – so it’s worth checking the exact postcode rather than relying on the district picture.
Flood zones only cover rivers and the sea, and ignore flood defences. Surface water from heavy rain can affect any street, including in Zone 1.
Flood zones by postcode sector
Each sector is the first part of the postcode plus the first digit after the space. CA11 7 has the highest share in Flood Zone 3 (5.8% of its postcodes).
| Sector | Postcodes | Zone 3 | Zone 2 | Breakdown |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CA11 0 | 263 | 4.6% | 4.2% | |
| CA11 1 | 41 | 0% | 0% | |
| CA11 7 | 259 | 5.8% | 2.3% | |
| CA11 8 | 310 | 2.9% | 1% | |
| CA11 9 | 245 | 1.2% | 0.8% |
Main rivers in Cumbria
River Eden – Appleby, Carlisle and the Solway
River Caldew and River Petteril – Join the Eden in Carlisle
River Kent – Kendal and the Kent estuary
More on the area in our Cumbria flood risk guide.
How these figures are worked out
We took the centre point of every live postcode in CA11 from OS Code-Point Open and tested it against the Environment Agency’s Flood Map for Planning, as published in the flood-risk-zone dataset (version of 5 November 2026). A postcode counts once, whether it has one home or forty, and a postcode whose centre is just outside a zone still counts as Zone 1. Updated November 2026.
For one address, the free postcode check looks at the zones around the postcode, and the full report adds surface water, reservoirs, recorded floods and defences.
