York is a city well-known for its winter floods.

Every year, business owners and residents alike are too familiar with high levels at the river Ouse, and after heavier periods of rainfall, the Foss.

The team responsible for preparing the city for such events met with The Press, to discuss exactly how they can tell when a flood is coming - and what people can do to prepare.

Located off Peasholme Green are the DEFRA offices - home to The Environment Agency's flood incident room. In here, a team of experts monitor, forecast, and respond to floods across the region.

Jon Knight, the flood incident management team leader, described how the rivers Ure, Nidd and Swale are the first port of call after a heavy period of rainfall.

These rivers - referred to as the "three taps" - flow downstream and "squeeze" through York's waterways.

Inside The Environment Agency's incident room in York (Image: Harry Booth)

"Our role is to get people ready," said Jon.

"We start with a five day forecast, that's where we start to get a picture of where could be a problem. Our models then form a picture 36 hours in advance."

Forecasting in the incident room is carried out through a combination of automated models and human expertise. However, the online forecasts on The Environment Agency website, rely solely on the automated models.

"They're not the most up to date forecasts, but we've got to start somewhere," said forecaster Andrew Denville.

"Sometimes we'll see the prediction on the website and think 'no chance'. It's an indicative forecast that requires human input to fine tune it."

Once forecasters like Andrew adjust the models' predictions, they're able to predict a flood level within a matter of millimetres.

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Over the years, both Jon and Andrew said that climate change has affected the way forecasting is done. Damage from vast amount of flood water has reshaped river beds and water courses, they said.

"We are seeing volumes of water that we haven't seen before," Andrew added.

"That further compounds the uncertainty of the York forecast, we're expecting bigger events."

For residents and business owners often hit by flooding, Jon said the best approach to prepare is to sign up for the Agency's online flood alerts.

He said: "Check whether you're at risk, sign up for our warnings and make a flood plan."

In the most extreme events, the incident room at the Agency can have up to 60 people from a variety of departments working on executing their plan to protect York.

"It's what we plan and exercise, it can be incredibly full on," Jon added.