Will there be flood?

When I came back from my Christmas holiday in the Netherlands, I could see that in my absence the river levels had been high. I could tell from the mud on the towpaths, and I found my running route under water. But the river had returned to modest levels.

And then it started rising again. And one day I encountered my commute blocked; a gate had been closed due to flooding. I saw the river was high, but it wasn’t THAT high! Strangely enough, you could easily get to both sides of that gate. With perfectly dry feet. It seemed to be a bit of a daft measure. What does having to go around a gate help? It doesn’t.

Was there flooding? Yes, a few days later (gate still closed) the other side of the river was flooding. I could see the river water streaming over the towpath onto a field that was part of a floodplain. And all along the route, I could see the northeast bank burst. No problems on the southwest bank though! But it did make for interesting pictures. If the river would have come even higher it would burst the other bank too. But it didn’t! The river dropped about 1.5 meters in the past 48 hours (of me writing this). Will I ever see York in flood? My guess is I won’t…

 

A man braves the tow path

 

That tower is supposed to stand NEAR the water

 

Some 4 km further downstream than the chap above, the path emerges from the water. I don't think it was flooded ALL the way, but it sure was for much of it!

Coming back to high water levels

"Shall we watch the eight o'clock news?" My stepmom suggested we keep ourselves informed on the world on Christmas day. One item stood out for me: wide-spread flooding in the UK. Oh dear; when I left, the river had already been quite high! They only mentioned Dorset, but why would the Dutch news be exhaustive on English flooding? So the next day I checked the river level. Dear! It had been a LOT higher than I'd ever seen it before. What would that do? But on the Yorkshire news sites no mention was made of York flooding. Apparently, nothing was amiss. And when I checked later, at the airport, levels were very modest again. But I was still curious to see for myself.

And then I went for my morning run. I didn't get very far! I could tell from trees washed up against the rail bridge, and mud on the footpath, the river had been quite energetic. And the floodplains were part flooded, and a lot of the path was under some three inches of water. And were this an off-road race I'd happily splash through, but for a morning run that goes a bit far. Good for pictures though! And if in the new year the water is still that high I'll have to run away from the river...

 The floodplain seen from the bridge. The water can be seen in the distance. These fields were the venue for the York horseraces, by the way, until flooding inspired a move to Knavesmire (not a very dryness-inspiring name itself).  

 

There is a concrete well somewhere in the plain. Something tells me the water in it is currently under pressure...

 

My running route vanishing under water

 

 It makes for nice pictures, though!