Subscribe to trusted local news
In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever. By subscribing, you can help us get the story right.
- Subscription costs less than £1 a week with an annual plan.
Already a subscriber? Log in here.
28
May
Water levels continuing to fall, says Yorkshire Water
The rain that finally fell across the district over the bank holiday weekend was not enough to raise water levels in our reservoirs, Yorkshire Water has warned.
This spring, which the Met Office has said is the driest on record, has seen Yorkshire’s reservoir stocks fall continuously for 120 days – since late January – a situation exacerbated by increased customer demand during the warmer weather.
Despite the welcome rainfall, Yorkshire Water has continued to urge customers to save water where possible, as reservoir stock levels dropped to 62.9% on Monday (May 26) from 66.1% the previous week – below the average (87.8%) for this time of year.
In the company's north area, which includes the reservoirs in the Harrogate district, water levels are currently at 66.2%.
As fewer people felt the need to wash their car or water their garden, demand for water throttled back over the wet bank holiday weekend – from 1.38 billion litres on Friday (May 23) to 1.26 billion litres on Monday (May 26) – a reduction of 120 million litres, or the equivalent of Bradford’s daily usage.
Dave Kaye, director of water at Yorkshire Water, said:
Gardens and trees will have taken most of the rainfall, leaving less to run off into rivers, groundwater or to top up reservoirs. Coupled with wind and some sunshine a lot of the rainfall has quickly evaporated. Soils are also very dry after nearly four months of very dry weather so will soak up a lot of rain, holding the water and not allowing it to flow to rivers or groundwater.
The rainfall over the weekend, whilst welcome to us and farmers, if not holidaymakers, doesn't make up for the large deficit seen over the last few months or the amount of water we use from the reservoirs for daily supplies.
The rain over the weekend has led to an increase in river flows, mostly in the Ure, Nidd, Wharfe and Aire, but these are very small, and, in many cases, flows are dropping again back towards the historically low levels seen earlier in May.
The unsettled weather expected this week may give a slight improvement to river and reservoir levels.
Currently, the Met Office is forecasting a week of sunny intervals with patchy rain showers on Thursday (May 29), Sunday (June 1) and Tuesday (June 3) mornings and light winds coming from the south and west.
1