Aire and Calder catchment
• Oulton Lemonroyd • West Yorkshire • ID: F1702 • Level
(39m ago) • 1 reading/hr • 192 views
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Current Level
0.228 m
▲ Rising slightly
24h Max
0.256 m
24h Min
0.200 m
Typical Range
0.23 - 2.05
m
Highest Recorded
2.91 m
27 Dec 2015
Since Aug 1995
Current level is 8% of this
🚽Sewage overflows nearby
Recent Water Levels
🌍 floodradar.co.uk
1 day
Prediction V2
Prediction Eris
Nimbus beta
Experimental model fusing soil moisture, river flow, groundwater and catchment
character. Shown with its calibrated 10–90% confidence band. 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.
Long Term
🌍 floodradar.co.uk
—
Consecutive rainy days0 → 10+
Days Above Normal
This year vs 5-year monthly range
Recent Readings
Rising · +2 cm over 6h
23 Aug 22:30▲ +0.5 cm0.228 m
23 Aug 21:15▲ +0.2 cm0.223 m
23 Aug 21:00▲ +0.1 cm0.221 m
23 Aug 20:45▲ +0.3 cm0.220 m
23 Aug 20:30▲ +0.1 cm0.217 m
23 Aug 20:15▲ +0.2 cm0.216 m
23 Aug 20:00▲ +0.1 cm0.214 m
23 Aug 19:45▲ +0.2 cm0.213 m
23 Aug 19:30▲ +0.2 cm0.211 m
23 Aug 19:15▲ +0.1 cm0.209 m
23 Aug 19:00▲ +0.2 cm0.208 m
23 Aug 18:45▲ +0.1 cm0.206 m
23 Aug 18:30▬ steady0.205 m
23 Aug 18:15▬ steady0.205 m
23 Aug 18:00▬ steady0.205 m
23 Aug 17:45▬ steady0.205 m
23 Aug 17:30▬ steady0.205 m
23 Aug 17:15▼ -0.1 cm0.205 m
23 Aug 17:00▼ -0.3 cm0.206 m
23 Aug 16:450.209 m
Rainfall & Weather
Loading rainfall and weather data...
Flood history near this gauge
Official Environment Agency warnings issued since 2012 for the 16 flood
areas linked to this gauge (nearest 1.4 km away).
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.
Geographic coordinates may reflect the access point for the gauge, and not the precise location in the watercourse that it is taking readings from.
Catchment Character
🌊 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 Recorded Flow
228 m³/s
27 Dec 2015
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).
How this gauging station is built and how long it has measured (NRFA / UKCEH).
Gauge type
Crump weir
Operating since
1985
Station datum
18.0 mAOD
Flow record
1985–2024 · 39 yrs · 100% complete
Peak-flow record
since 1985
Hydrometric area
27
Measured by
Environment Agency
Nearby Groundwater
Soil Moisture
Possible storm-overflow correlation
🚽 Storm overflows on this river
Frequently asked questions
Is the River Aire at Oulton Lemonroyd flooding today?
The current level is 0.23m, which is below the typical range. Flooding is very unlikely at this level.
Is the river level rising or falling at Oulton Lemonroyd?
Based on the most recent readings, the level is currently rising slightly. The chart above shows the last 7 days of measurements, 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 taken by the Environment Agency gauge roughly every 15 minutes and FloodRadar refreshes its data continuously, so the level shown is normally less than an hour old.
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📮 Flood risk by postcode near this gauge
Postcodes within 5 km with properties in the Environment Agency’s rivers-and-sea flood-risk bands:
