Picture of the river Aire, Leeds. Late this afternoon I walked down to the river Aire adjacent to the Royal Armouries museum to see how high the water level might be. I think perhaps technically at this point the river Aire is the Aire and Calder navigation.
I walked down along The Calls to the Armouries and then across to lock number 1 aka Leeds lock then crossed the water to Fearns Island. Looking from the small island across to the far bank and the apartments and offices on the other side I took the above photograph.
As can be seen the water level at this point is pretty high being just a few inches below the level of the car park and ground level on that side. I am normally pretty comfortable around water being a swimmer, canoeist and sailor. When I left the island and crossed the pedestrian bridge I had a slight feeling of unease with the nearness and height of the surge of water right next to where I stood.
I noticed as I walked along the bank of the water that some sandbags had been placed in front the entrance to a few of the apartment buildings. A few minutes after I took this picture the sky opened and it rained about as heavily as I have ever seen it do in the UK, so it possible that the water level is higher still by now. One of my general rules for living my life is to never live within a level to which a river could flood. I think I can safely say I would never live this close to the river Aire.
Leedsdailyphoto.com 