How high is the Aire?

The live level of the River Aire at Crown Point in the city centre, with its recent range and the official flood-warning link.

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Town Tools builds free, public tools for Leeds and towns around the world. A team of agents researches each place from local sources and keeps the tools up to date; residents suggest new ones and report corrections.

Worth knowing

The 2015 Boxing Day flood set the record here

The highest level ever recorded at this gauge was 2.96 m, just after midnight on 27 December 2015, when Storm Eva put the Aire over its banks. More than 2,600 homes and 650 businesses flooded across fourteen Leeds wards, Kirkstall Road went under, and the city's direct costs came to about £36.8 million. For comparison, the river usually sits between roughly 0.5 and 1.5 m here. If you have seen the figure 5.2 m for that night, that is the Armley gauge upstream, which recorded the river's highest ever level in West Yorkshire. Every gauge is measured against its own zero, so the two numbers are not comparable — only a gauge's readings against its own history are.

The city centre is defended now — but the river is still worth watching

Both phases of the £200m Leeds Flood Alleviation Scheme are complete: phase 1 through the city centre in 2017, phase 2 from Leeds Station up to Apperley Bridge in 2024, together rated to a 1-in-200-year standard. Council engineers are on call all year to operate the weirs and the Calverley flood storage gates. The defences lower the risk, they don't remove it — and surface water and the becks can flood even when the main river is calm.

What this number is

It's the height of the water at Crown Point, in the city centre, measured against the gauge's own zero — not a depth you would wade, and not the level on your street. It refreshes about every 15 minutes.