Flood warnings and river levels

Live Environment Agency warnings for York's own flood areas, plus what the Ouse and Foss gauges are reading right now.

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River levels

Levels are measured against each gauge’s usual range — “above typical” doesn’t mean flooding, but it’s the first thing that moves when water is on its way.

Gauge	Speaks for	Reading	Level
Ouse at the Foss Barrier	the city centre — Coney Street, Clifford Street, Lendal Bridge and the land around the station	5.36 m	Within typical range
Ouse at Skelton	upstream of York — this one moves first, hours before the centre does	0.868 m	Within typical range
Foss at Castle Mills Sluices	the Foss side — Layerthorpe, Foss Islands Road, Stonebow, Piccadilly and The Groves	7.566 m	Within typical range
Ouse at Naburn Lock	downstream, where the Ouse becomes tidal below Fulford and Bishopthorpe	0.734 m	Within typical range

Each reading is metres on that gauge’s own scale, so compare a gauge with itself over time — not one gauge with another.

Worth knowing

Why the Foss floods when it is the Ouse that is high

The Foss Barrier at Castle Mills stops a high Ouse from backing up the Foss, and pumps lift the Foss out over it. On Boxing Day 2015 the pumping station was inundated and the barrier gate had to be raised to save the pumps — which let the Ouse straight up the Foss into the streets the barrier exists to protect. Around 627 properties flooded across York. That is why the Foss gauge is on this page next to the Ouse ones. If you live on the Foss side, the number worth watching is often the Ouse.

What has been built since

A £38m upgrade of the Foss Barrier, a £45m programme of new defences, and the York Flood Alleviation Scheme — a City of York Council and Environment Agency partnership across ten communities on the Ouse, the Foss and their tributaries, around £110m in total, now reporting more than 2,000 properties better protected to a 1-in-100-year standard. Better protected is not the same as safe. The scheme was built to a standard, and water occasionally exceeds standards.

The streets the Environment Agency names

York has separate flood warning areas rather than one city-wide one, so a warning can be in force for your street and nowhere else. On the Ouse they include Clementhorpe and South Bank, Marygate, Leeman Road, Skeldergate and Tower Street, Queen's Staith and St George's Field, North Street, River Street, Peckitt Street, Clifton, Fulford and Bishopthorpe. On the Foss: Layerthorpe to Foss Islands Road, Stonebow and Piccadilly, The Groves, and the reaches above and below Yearsley Baths. Any that are in force appear at the top of this page.

Getting told, rather than checking

The Environment Agency will phone, text or email you when a warning is issued for your address — sign up at gov.uk/sign-up-for-flood-warnings, or call Floodline on 0345 988 1188, which is staffed 24 hours. City of York Council publishes what to do before, during and after at york.gov.uk/PrepareForFlooding. If water is coming into your home and you are in danger, call 999.