This page archived August 2008
Pictures of the receding waters of the Ouse taken by Mister P in early August 2002. The King's Arms, down by the River Ouse is regularly hit by flooding, but the pub is ready for it. The barrels are kept upstairs rather than down in the cellar, and they can keep open with small amounts of floodwater, and quickly get ready for customers again. The sweeping of the terrace is going on in the bottom left of the photos. Click to enlarge the thumbnail image.
August 2002 saw some unprecedented falls of rain over North Yorkshire and many other parts of the country. The Environment Agency posted over 50 warnings, including a severe warning for the town of Pickering. RAF Leeming in North Yorkshire recorded 86.4mm of rain in less than 24 hours (the previous record total was only 48mm) Sandbags were issued to residents. The Cod Beck area of Thirsk was also affected. Waddington, further south in Lincolnshire, had 2 months rain in less than 3 hours.
Rivers which had flood warnings included the Wharfe, Ure, Rye, Ouse, Nidd, Esk and Derwent.
I have a book which was all about the flooding in 2000 produced by the Yorkshire Post.
My brother now lives on the shores of the River Ouse, and in the winter, his garden floods and then the waters recede in the spring and summer.
The page of links by YORK CITY COUNCIL has now changed, and many thanks to them for contacting me (September 2003) to let me know the change of link. The pictures have now been ARCHIVED at the location named. The pages linked to include links to a whole series of pages of details and excellent photographs, some of which are the copyright of 'The Yorkshire Post'. There are some good aerial photographs from November 2000.
SIMON CALDWELL has some good images of SKYE: notably the CIOCH, but also has around 30 images of the YORK FLOODS of the Year 2000