Guest, Sign inJoin
7 & 9 High Street, TadcasterPhoto: Alan Murray-Rust · CC BY-SA 2.0
CHazard risk Grade
Flood & hazards in Tadcaster · Environment Agency

In Tadcaster, heavy rain puts more homes at risk than rivers or the sea: 3.4%, against 1.1%

On the Environment Agency’s maps, which allow for flood defences, “high or medium” means at least a 1 in 100 chance of flooding from rivers or the sea in any year. For hazard risk, Tadcaster grades C: #30 of 54 in North Yorkshire.

2015worst recorded flood7flood warnings since 200647%in a radon Affected Area
In brief

What stands out about Tadcaster’s hazards

From the Environment Agency’s maps and records and the BGS radon atlas, below.

Rain, more than the river3.4% of homes sit where heavy rain can flood the streets, against 1.1% at risk from rivers and the sea.Remembers 2015Floodwater covered 13 hectares of today’s Tadcaster in 2015; 63 of today’s households live inside past flood outlines.7 flood warnings since 2006For the parts of Tadcaster the Environment Agency warns directly; the most recent on 21 February 2022.
By hazard

What Tadcaster faces

Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.

Rivers and the sea

1.1%of homes at high or medium risk
More than the typical UK town · more than 69% of towns
60 homes by the EA’s own count

Surface water

3.4%of homes at high or medium risk
More than 48% of UK towns
Rivers and sea: 1.1%

Past floods

11years with a recorded flood
Last recorded: February 2022
63 households inside past outlines

The River Wharfe

2.43 mhighest in winter 2025–26 at Tadcaster
30th-highest of 34 winters
Record 4.51 m, December 2015

Flood warnings

7flood warnings since 2006
55 flood alerts for the wider area
Last warning 21 February 2022

Radon

47%of the town in a radon Affected Area
Highest band here: 1–3% of homes
No square of 5% or more
Not on this page: coastal erosion, subsidence and shrink-swell ground (the British Geological Survey licenses it), groundwater flooding and reservoir failure.
Hazard risk Grade

Tadcaster grades C for hazard risk

Flood risk from rivers and the sea, against all UK towns.

Homes at high or medium flood risk (1.1%)Fewer than 31% of UK towns

The share of homes at high or medium risk from rivers and the sea, ranked against every UK town of 1,000 or more: fewer homes at risk is better. Towns with none at high or medium risk are ordered by their share at low risk, so they don’t all share one score. Surface water and radon aren’t graded: they are described below.

Flood map

Where the water goes in Tadcaster

Turn layers on and off. Blue is the risk from rivers and the sea; pink is where heavy rain collects. Both allow for flood defences.

Recorded flood: 1978Recorded flood: 1982Recorded flood: 1991Recorded flood: 1995Recorded flood: 2000Recorded flood: 2002Recorded flood: 2012Recorded flood: 2015Recorded flood: 2019Recorded flood: 2020Recorded flood: 2022© OpenStreetMap contributors · EA NaFRA2
HighMediumLowrivers & seaHighMediumLowsurface waterTadcaster’s built-up area

The river and sea risk follows the River Wharfe, the Kel Beck and the Town Beck. Surface-water risk is spread across the town, in dips, underpasses and along small streams, which is why more homes are exposed to it.

Rivers and the sea

1.1% of Tadcaster’s homes are at high or medium risk from rivers or the sea

The Environment Agency’s national map, allowing for defences. A further 0.3% are at low risk.

High risk0.6%of homes · 1 in 30 a year or more29 homes, EA count
Medium risk0.5%of homes · 1 in 30 to 1 in 10031 homes, EA count
Low risk0.3%of homes · 1 in 100 to 1 in 1,00016 homes, EA count
Where Tadcaster sits among 3,735 UK towns
35%None
23%Under 0.5%
9%0.5–1%
11%1–2%Tadcaster
11%2–5%
5%5–10%
3%10–20%
2%20% +

Share of each UK town’s homes at high or medium risk from rivers and the sea. 35% of UK towns have none; Tadcaster has more than 69% of towns.

Towns its size: 500th of 709 from the fewest homes at risk
#TownPeopleHigh or med.
1Banstead Surrey8,9290%
2Warlingham Surrey8,9180%
3Whitnash Warwickshire8,9140%
…
498Ynysybwl Mid Glamorgan4,5801.1%
499Pontarddulais West Glamorgan6,5131.1%
500Tadcaster North Yorkshire6,3391.1%
501Kinver Staffordshire4,6511.1%
502Holmfirth West Yorkshire4,9821.1%
…
708Howden East Riding of Yorkshire4,57262%
709Stainforth South Yorkshire5,99963%

UK towns of 4,000 to 9,000 people.

The Environment Agency’s Risk of Flooding from Rivers and Sea (NaFRA2, June 2026) counts each postcode’s homes by band; the shares weight those postcodes by Census 2021 households. The EA counts include homes built since 2021.

Surface water

Heavy rain puts about 3.1 times as many Tadcaster homes at risk as rivers and the sea do

Surface water is rain that falls faster than drains and the ground can take it. It is mapped separately from rivers and the sea, and it is not in the Hazard risk Grade.

Surface water3.4%
Rivers and the sea1.1%
0%7%14% of homes

About 1.9% of homes are at high risk of surface-water flooding (a 1 in 30 chance or more each year) and 1.5% at medium risk: roughly 100 households. A further 3.6% face a low risk from surface water. That is more than 48% of UK towns.

~100
households at high or medium risk
3.6%
of homes at low risk
48%
of UK towns have a smaller share
4,894
addresses read on the map

Our estimate: every address in the town (ONS NSUL) read on the Environment Agency’s Risk of Flooding from Surface Water map (NaFRA2, 2025), each postcode’s share weighted by its Census 2021 households. Neither agency publishes a count of homes for surface water, so treat it as a guide; one street can differ from the next.

Flood history

Tadcaster has flooded in 11 recorded years since 1978, most of all in 2015

Every flood the Environment Agency has mapped inside Tadcaster’s built-up area, newest first. The record is fullest for big river floods; small and surface-water floods are often missing.

  1. 2022February 2022: River flooding recordedUnder 1 hectare inside today’s built-up area · February Flood Incident -Storm Dudley, Eunice and Franklin
  2. 2020February 2020: River flooding recorded1 hectare inside today’s built-up area · February Flood Incident - Storm Dennis, February Flood Incident - Storm Ciara
  3. 2019March 2019: River flooding recordedUnder 1 hectare inside today’s built-up area · March Flooding Yorkshire
  4. 2015December 2015: River flooding recorded13 hectares inside today’s built-up area
  5. 2012September 2012: River flooding recorded1 hectare inside today’s built-up area
  6. 2002February 2002: River flooding recorded3 hectares inside today’s built-up area
Show all 11
  1. 2000October 2000: River flooding recorded7 hectares inside today’s built-up area
  2. 1995January 1995: River flooding recorded4 hectares inside today’s built-up area
  3. 1991February 1991: River flooding recorded4 hectares inside today’s built-up area
  4. 1982January 1982: River flooding recorded7 hectares inside today’s built-up area
  5. 1978December 1978: River flooding recorded5 hectares inside today’s built-up area
The worst: 201513 ha

Floodwater covered 13 hectares of what is now Tadcaster in 2015, the largest flood the record holds here (December).

63 of Tadcaster’s households today live inside the outline of a recorded flood.

Since 2015, the largest recorded flood inside the town covered 1 hectare.

River levels

The River Wharfe at Tadcaster: highest 4.51 m, in December 2015

The highest level each winter (October to September) at the Environment Agency’s Tadcaster gauge, since 1991. The river normally runs between 0.18 m and 2.50 m here.

Highest level each winter, metres
Winter 1991–92: highest 2.77 m · 5 days above the normal rangeWinter 1992–93: highest 3.13 m · 3 days above the normal rangeWinter 1993–94: highest 2.66 m · 1 days above the normal rangeWinter 1994–95: highest 3.44 m on 1 February 1995 · 5 days above the normal rangeWinter 1995–96: highest 1.81 m · 0 days above the normal rangeWinter 1996–97: highest 2.39 m · 0 days above the normal rangeWinter 1997–98: highest 2.89 m · 3 days above the normal rangeWinter 1998–99: highest 2.58 m · 2 days above the normal rangeWinter 1999–00: highest 3.18 m · 6 days above the normal rangeWinter 2000–01: highest 3.79 m on 31 October 2000 · 10 days above the normal rangeWinter 2001–02: highest 3.58 m on 12 February 2002 · 7 days above the normal rangeWinter 2002–03: highest 2.53 m · 1 days above the normal rangeWinter 2003–04: highest 2.88 m · 7 days above the normal rangeWinter 2004–05: highest 3.34 m · 3 days above the normal rangeWinter 2005–06: highest 2.42 m · 0 days above the normal rangeWinter 2006–07: highest 3.13 m · 11 days above the normal rangeWinter 2007–08: highest 3.54 m on 22 January 2008 · 10 days above the normal rangeWinter 2009–10: highest 3.43 m · 5 days above the normal rangeWinter 2010–11: highest 3.17 m · 5 days above the normal rangeWinter 2011–12: highest 3.70 m on 26 September 2012 · 11 days above the normal rangeWinter 2012–13: highest 3.06 m · 7 days above the normal rangeWinter 2013–14: highest 2.41 m · 0 days above the normal rangeWinter 2014–15: highest 2.64 m · 2 days above the normal rangeWinter 2015–16: highest 4.51 m on 27 December 2015 · 14 days above the normal rangeWinter 2016–17: highest 2.52 m · 1 days above the normal rangeWinter 2017–18: highest 2.48 m · 0 days above the normal rangeWinter 2018–19: highest 3.33 m · 4 days above the normal rangeWinter 2019–20: highest 3.42 m · 8 days above the normal rangeWinter 2020–21: highest 3.39 m · 7 days above the normal rangeWinter 2021–22: highest 3.95 m on 21 February 2022 · 4 days above the normal rangeWinter 2022–23: highest 2.84 m · 3 days above the normal rangeWinter 2023–24: highest 2.96 m · 19 days above the normal rangeWinter 2024–25: highest 3.33 m · 4 days above the normal rangeWinter 2025–26: highest 2.43 m · 0 days above the normal range’15–16’21–22’00–01Record 4.51 m, 2015Top of normal range
1991–922025–26
The highest days on record
  • 27 December 20154.51 m
  • 21 February 20223.95 m
  • 31 October 20003.79 m
  • 26 September 20123.70 m
  • 12 February 20023.58 m
  • 22 January 20083.54 m

The River Wharfe has topped its normal range on 168 days since 1991, most in the winters of 2023–24 and 2015–16. By its highest day, the winter of 2025–26 was the 30th-highest of the 34.

Environment Agency Hydrology API, Tadcaster (station F2002), daily maximum level; the record and normal range from the EA’s stage scale. Live river levels are on GOV.UK’s Check for flooding.

Flood warnings

No flood warning or alert is in force for Tadcaster · 7 warnings in 20 years

The Environment Agency has 1 flood warning area and 1 alert area reaching into the town; warnings since the service began in 2006.

Now: no flood warnings or alerts for Tadcaster (checked 7 November 2026, 07:50). Check for flooding on GOV.UK →
Warnings and alerts each year for areas in Tadcaster
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
Flood warning (flooding expected)Flood alert (flooding possible)

Of the 7 warnings, 7 were for River Wharfe at Tadcaster. 2015 had the most warnings (3); 2020 the most alerts (9).

The most recent warning was on 21 February 2022.

Show the 2 warning and alert areas
AreaKindSince 2006Now
River Wharfe at TadcasterWarning area7None
Lower River WharfeAlert area55None

Environment Agency Historic Flood Warnings (first issues only, not updates; “flood watch” counted as an alert before 2011) and the real-time flood-monitoring API. Sign up for free warnings on GOV.UK or call Floodline, 0345 988 1188.

Radon

Parts of Tadcaster are in radon Affected Areas, at the low end

Radon is a natural radioactive gas from the ground; long exposure raises the risk of lung cancer. The atlas gives the chance that a home in each 1 km square is above the UK action level (200 Bq/m³).

SE4542: 1–3% of homes above the action levelSE4742: 1–3% of homes above the action levelSE4743: 1–3% of homes above the action levelSE4842: 1–3% of homes above the action levelSE4843: Under 1% of homes above the action levelSE4844: Under 1% of homes above the action levelSE4943: Under 1% of homes above the action levelSE4944: Under 1% of homes above the action levelSE5044: Under 1% of homes above the action level© OpenStreetMap contributors · BGS/UKHSA
Under 1%1–3%
Share of the town’s area in each band
Under 1% of homes53%
1–3% of homes47%

47% of Tadcaster’s built-up area is in a radon Affected Area (1% of homes or more above the action level).

The squares are indicative: each takes the highest band found anywhere inside it, so most homes in a coloured square are below it. Only a three-month test in the home gives a real answer.

BGS/UKHSA Indicative Atlas of Radon in Great Britain, version 3. Check an address at UKradon.org.

Neighbours

Flood risk in the places around Tadcaster

Share of homes at high or medium and at low risk from rivers and the sea. Tap a town for its page.

Thorp Arch: Hazard risk DBramham: Hazard risk C−Boston Spa: Hazard risk C+Church Fenton: Hazard risk D−Aberford: Hazard risk CCopmanthorpe: Hazard risk ATockwith: Hazard risk CThorp ArchBramhamBoston SpaChurch FentonAberfordCopmanthorpeTockwithTadcaster
ABCD
TownPeopleHigh or mediumLowHazard
Tadcaster6,3391.1%0.3%C
Thorp Arch1,7823.8%0.2%D
Bramham1,7642.5%3.9%C−
Boston Spa6,3580.6%0.3%C+
Church Fenton1,64368%31%D−
Aberford1,5511.4%0.4%C
Copmanthorpe3,6710%0%A
Tockwith1,7881.5%0.3%C

Church Fenton, 4.4 miles south-east, has the most homes at risk around Tadcaster (68% at high or medium). Copmanthorpe has none.

Be ready

Get ready for what Tadcaster faces

Free warnings, what to do in a cloudburst, and what to check before you move.

Get the warnings
  • Sign up free for Environment Agency flood warnings by text, call or email.
  • Floodline: 0345 988 1188, 24 hours.
  • Tadcaster’s warning areas include River Wharfe at Tadcaster.
Sign up ↗
In a cloudburst
  • Surface water rises in minutes, often with no warning issued: stay out of underpasses and dips.
  • Keep the gullies and drains outside your home clear of leaves.
  • Report a blocked road drain to the council.
Radon
  • Test over three months, in a living room and a bedroom.
  • Above 200 Bq/m³, a small sump and fan usually fixes it.
  • New homes in radon areas are built with protection: basic from 3%, full from 10%.
UKradon ↗
Before you buy or rent in Tadcaster
  • Check the address on GOV.UK’s long-term flood risk service: it gives rivers and sea and surface water separately.
  • Ask whether the home has flooded or had a flood insurance claim; the TA6 property form asks the seller.
  • Homes built before 2009 can get flood cover through Flood Re, the government-backed scheme; newer homes can’t.
  • Check radon for the address on UKradon.org (a small fee) or ask the seller for a test result.
How to read these numbers

What this data can and can’t tell you

  • Defences are counted. Both agencies’ maps allow for flood defences and the chance they are overtopped or fail, so a town behind a defence scheme can show few homes at high risk and many at low risk.
  • Surface water is our estimate. Neither agency publishes a count of homes at risk from surface water, so we read each address on the map. A flat on a hill and a basement in a dip can share a postcode.
  • Past floods are what was recorded. The flood outlines come from surveys, aerial photographs and reports; many small floods, and most surface-water floods, were never mapped.
  • One town, many streets. Risk is street by street. Check a specific address on GOV.UK’s long-term flood risk service before you buy or rent.

Check the long-term flood risk for an address on GOV.UK →

Questions about flooding and hazards in Tadcaster

Does Tadcaster flood?

The last flood the Environment Agency recorded inside the town was in February 2022. 1.1% of homes are at high or medium risk from rivers and the sea on the Environment Agency’s maps, which allow for flood defences. About 3.4% of homes are at high or medium risk from surface water, when heavy rain overwhelms the drains. Tadcaster grades C for hazard risk against UK towns.

Which parts of Tadcaster are at risk of flooding?

From rivers and the sea, the places the Environment Agency warns directly: River Wharfe at Tadcaster. Surface water can collect in low spots anywhere in the town. Check a specific address on GOV.UK’s long-term flood risk service.

When did Tadcaster last flood?

The recorded flood outlines inside the town run from 1978 to 2022 (11 years); the largest was in 2015. Flood warnings have been issued for parts of the town since 2006, most recently on 21 February 2022.

Is Tadcaster at risk of surface water flooding?

About 1.9% of homes are at high risk and 1.5% at medium risk from surface water, against 1.1% at high or medium risk from rivers and the sea. Surface water floods come with little warning, and the agencies don’t issue warnings for them.

Is radon a problem in Tadcaster?

47% of the town’s built-up area is in a radon Affected Area on the BGS/UKHSA atlas. Most homes are below it; a three-month test is the only way to know.

Are there flood warnings in Tadcaster now?

No flood warning or alert was in force near Tadcaster at 7 November 2026, 07:50. Live warnings are on GOV.UK’s Check for flooding service and Floodline, 0345 988 1188.

Contains Environment Agency information © Environment Agency and/or database right 2026. Contains British Geological Survey materials © UKRI 2026.

Sources: Environment Agency Risk of Flooding from Rivers and Sea, postcodes in areas at risk (June 2026); Natural Resources Wales Flood Risk Assessment Wales (May 2026); ONS Census 2021 households by postcode · Environment Agency Risk of Flooding from Surface Water (NaFRA2, 2025) and Natural Resources Wales Flood Risk Assessment Wales surface water and small watercourses, read at every address (ONS National Statistics UPRN Lookup, September 2026) and weighted by Census 2021 households by postcode · Environment Agency Recorded Flood Outlines and Natural Resources Wales historic flood map, inside the ONS 2022 built-up-area boundary · Environment Agency Hydrology API (daily maximum river level) and flood-monitoring stage scales · Environment Agency real-time flood-monitoring API · Environment Agency Historic Flood Warnings (January 2006 to June 2026) and flood warning and alert areas · BGS/UKHSA Indicative Atlas of Radon in Great Britain, version 3, by 1 km square · TownRatings grades: our own summary of the data, ranked against UK towns only. All under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (ONS boundaries). Northern Ireland: Source: NISRA; contains Land & Property Services data and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland information, © Crown copyright, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Scotland: contains National Records of Scotland data, Registers of Scotland data and SEPA data, © Crown copyright / © SEPA 2025, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.