People in Flintshire were left shocked as a huge section of a Welsh river turned bright orange over the course of a single weekend. Stretches of the River Dee, near where Flintshire meets Cheshire, changed from the usual muddy brown to a brighter shade through the weekend of May 13-14.
Reports of the orange colour came in from Holt and Farndon near Wrexham and across the border near Cheshire. One photo, captured by the canalised section of the river in Queensferry, Deeside, shows the extent of the colour change.
Andy Gray, who runs Andy Van Man removals in Queensferry, took the photo. He told North Wales Live: "I’ve been walking my dogs along the river most days for 15 years,” he said. “I’ve never seen it looking remotely like that before. The river is never this colour, not even slightly. People were literally stopping to take photos and to look at it!"
People had some tongue-in-cheek theories about the colour, with one speculating Donald Trump had taken a swim in the river and others theorising "dodgy tikka masala kebabs" had been thrown in the river upstream.
But environmental regular Natural Resources Wales eventually confirmed the origin of the orange tint - David Powell, north Wales duty manager, said the red-orange "plume" was caused by localised rainfall.
He told North Wales Live: "Following reports of red, cloudy water in the River Dee in the Chester area on Saturday, we can confirm the discolouration was caused by heavy localised rainfall in various parts of the River Dee catchment on May 11. NRW officers have been monitoring the plume."
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