Flood warnings remain in place after downpours

LONDON: Flood warnings remain in force across parts of England following heavy downpours over the weekend.

There were 20 flood warnings and 28 flood alerts in force in England on Monday morning, with the majority in Yorkshire and the Midlands.Despite more rain expected in western parts of the country on Monday, the Met Office said conditions will get warmer and drier throughout the week.

There were six flood warnings along the River Ouse, including two in York, a further five warnings on the River Swale and one on the River Ure.The River Severn had six flood warnings in force along its course, while there were further warnings were issued along the River Dee at Farndon and Keswick in Cumbria.

The Environment Agency said it had installed temporary flood barriers and was operating flood defences to keep communities safe. The Met Office said while western parts of the country should expect more rain on Monday, conditions will get drier and warmer throughout the week.

Meteorologist John West said the high river levels were due to heavy downpours over the weekend, with parts of Wales having half a month’s rain in the space of a day. He added: “We saw quite a lot of rain in western areas over the last few days, which helps to top up river levels.

“On Saturday, we recorded about half a month’s rainfall for parts of Wales. We got about 110-115mm of rain within a 12 to 18-hour period. The wettest areas over the next few hours are the south-west, Scotland and west Wales. We are probably going to see an additional 10mm over the hills of west Wales.”

West said temperatures could rise to the mid-teens by the end of the week. He added: “There’s certainly going to be a bit of an improvement. We should probably get up to about 11 degrees as a max somewhere in the south-east, that jumps up by Tuesday with highs of 14 in the south-east.“We will probably hang on to those temperatures in the mid-teens, we could see 16 or 17 as we go through the back end of the week.”