Aire and Calder catchment
• Oulton Lemonroyd • West Yorkshire • ID: F1702 • Level
(1h ago) • 4 readings/hr • 226 views
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You'll be notified when a new storm-overflow (sewage) discharge starts within ~3 km of this gauge, based on the water companies' near-real-time feeds.
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Current Level
0.401 m
▼ Easing (-1cm/hr)
24h Max
0.576 m
24h Min
0.322 m
Typical Range
0.23 - 2.05
m
Highest Recorded
2.91 m
EA official record
2.91 in our data (since Aug 1995)
Current level is 14% of this
🚽Sewage overflows nearby
Recent Water Levels
🌍 floodradar.co.uk
1 day
EA forecast (official)
Prediction V2
Prediction Eris
Nimbus beta
Experimental model fusing soil moisture, river flow, groundwater and catchment
character. The shaded band is its 10–90% range, widened so that about 80% of recent outcomes fall inside it.
Under evaluation — not yet promoted, so treat as a second opinion.
River Flow
90 days
Daily mean discharge (m³/s) with the daily min–max band, from the EA Hydrology API. Flow is the volume of water passing the gauge — often a more direct flood signal than level.
Flow Data: Daily mean flow (m³/s) to 6 Oct (2 days behind — the EA publishes each day's mean a day or two after it ends; unchecked, provisional)via EA Hydrology
Storm overflows whose water reaches this gauge on the mapped river network, nearest first by distance along the river. The status is each water company's monitor: it says whether an overflow is discharging, not how much or what it contains.
245 storm overflows are traced upstream of this gauge, the nearest 2.4 km away along the river. 0 report discharging now, 237 report not discharging, and for 8 the monitor is offline or has not reported, so their status is not known.
Yorkshire Water · into Trib Of River Aire · 4.1 km away in a straight line · its watercourse is not on the river map
6 spills · 37 hours in 2025
Not discharging now · last
4 more within 6 km whose connection is not known.
25 other overflows within 6 km are downstream of this gauge or on another branch of the river network, so they are not listed.
These are the water companies' monitor statuses; a spill does not by itself explain a change in the gauge level. River connections and distances are traced on OS Open Rivers (edition 2026-04), which leaves out many small channels. Explore the sewage map →
Warnings apply to a whole flood area, not necessarily this exact spot. Years before 2006 aren't covered by the EA's historic record.
See also the Oulton Lemonroyd flood history.
Flood areas linked to this gauge
Flood warnings and alerts are issued for whole areas. These are the 16 areas linked to this gauge, nearest first.
🌊 Urban & flashyHeavily built-up — rain runs off hard surfaces fast, so levels can spike within hours of heavy rain.
Your catchment is all the land that drains rainfall into the river above this gauge. Its character — how
steep, wet, wooded, urban or chalky that land is — decides how fast rain here turns into a rising river. A steep, bare or clay
catchment is “flashy” (rises and falls quickly, floods easily); a flat, chalk or well-wooded one is
slow and steady. The tiles below put numbers to that; the flow-duration curve reads left-to-right
from the river’s typical high flows (Q5) down to its low flows (Q95) — a steep curve means a flashy river.
The physical character of the land that drains to this gauge, and how it shapes its flood response — from the National River Flow Archive (UKCEH).
Baseflow Index
0.40
mixed response
Avg Annual Rainfall
1,025 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +6% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
15%
heavily urbanised
Median Annual Flood
157 m³/s
QMED — typical yearly peak flow
Highest Daily Mean Flow
228 m³/s
27 Dec 2015 · daily mean, not the instantaneous peak
Flow-Duration Curve
Daily flow (m³/s) exceeded each % of the time — a steep curve is flashy, a flat one is steady. Q5 high · Q50 median · Q95 low.
Triangular Crump weir with fish pass. Replaced Fleet Weir. All data held against this station number.
More detail
The catchment
Largely impervious catchment developed mainly on Carboniferous Limestone (headwaters), Millstone Grit and Lower Coal Measures. Extensive superficial deposits, predominantly Boulder Clay. Rough grazing in Pennine headwaters contrasts with very considerable urban and industrial development (Leeds and Bradford conurbation) below Skipton. General increase in areas of development in mid to lower catchment through period of record.
The station
Triangular Crump weir (approx. 27m wide) with fish pass. No cableway. In 1993 it replaced Fleet Weir 320m u/s. Fleet Weir, built 1985, is a 35m wide Crump weir with a fish pass (not used). Fleet Weir drowns as a result of backing up from Lemonroyd. Both gauges are located downstream of Leeds but upstream of the major confluence with the Calder. A serious bank breach in March 1988 inundated the adjacent open cast coal mine and was attributed to geological fault. After the breach Lemonroyd was built in a 3km long, S-shaped cut through meandering river channel, further from opencast mine. Fleet Weir had shown evidence of movement prior to the inundation event. All data (for 27080 and Fleet Weir) held against this station number. Flows above Qmed are diverted >600m u/s of gauge through St Aidens Washland, flows return to the Aire downstream of the gauge. The offtake to the washland was completed in 2012 (although the washland used prior to this).
How it measures flow
Crump weir with high modular range, no known drowning and all flows retained within the structure. Construction of St Aidans washland upstream does now cause some bypassing of Oulton Lemonroyd Weir during flood flows above QMED. This bypass is stored in large washland area and returns downstream of the weir. Low and medium flows not affected by the offtake. Aire and Calder Navigation canal bypasses the station. Gauging originally carried out by boat at low to moderate levels, higher flows were gauged from the upstream footbridge and now by ADCP upstream of the weir. Two peak flow ratings applied across period of record, the first applies to the data from Fleet Weir and the more recent is valid from August 1995. Recent rating shows a good fit to gaugings.
Flow regime
Significant urban development in the catchment and complex pattern of water utilisation, including canals and wastewater discharges gives significant disturbance to runoff regime. Leeds and Bradford sewage treatment works discharge upstream, there is a net import of water from Wharfe and Nidd catchments for public water supply.
The flow record
Data for 06/09/1985 to 11/08/1995 from Fleet Weir; 11/08/1995 to present from 27080. All data held against this station number. December 2015 flood peak thought to have been significantly delayed and reduced as a result of flow into the St Aidan's washland upstream. Full period of record peak flow data reviewed and released in October 2018 (WINFAP Files v7).
Timing, not cause. Gauges can move together simply because the same rain fell on both.
Frequently asked questions
Is the River Aire at Oulton Lemonroyd flooding today?
The current level is 0.40m, which is within the typical range of 0.23 to 2.05m. Flooding is unlikely at this level.
Is the river level rising or falling at Oulton Lemonroyd?
Based on the most recent readings, the level is currently falling slightly. The chart above shows the last 12 hours of measurements by default (up to 7 days), updated roughly every 15 minutes.
Why is the level slowly falling?
When little or no rain has fallen for a while, a river level gradually drops as the water stored in the ground and soil drains away with nothing to replace it. This is called baseflow recession and is normal in dry spells. A gentle decline like this is expected and is not a sign of a problem — downstream gauges often recede a little faster than headwaters further upstream, and levels recover once rain returns.
What is a normal level for the River Aire at Oulton Lemonroyd?
The typical range at this station is 0.23m to 2.05m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 2.05m are higher than usually seen and may indicate a flood risk.
How often is this river level data updated?
Readings are supplied by the Environment Agency gauge. FloodRadar checks for updates roughly every 15 minutes; the timestamp above shows how recent the latest available reading is.
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Postcodes within 5 km with properties in the Environment Agency’s rivers-and-sea flood-risk bands:
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