Flood warnings still intact, but relief from rain forecast

LONDON: Large parts of the country remain mired in floods as experts warn the chaos could continue until Tuesday.

The Environment Agency has issued 70 flood warnings as of 6.49am on Sunday, meaning flooding is expected and immediate action is required. The rivers Severn and Avon have burst their banks leaving properties waterlogged in Gloucestershire and Worcestershire, while residents in the Midlands and Yorkshire are still battling to clear their homes.

But despite some areas enduring their “wettest ever autumns”, much-needed relief from heavy rainfall has been forecast for flood-hit areas in the coming days. Although river levels in some areas remain high, the Met Office said it has not issued any weather warnings as drier weather approaches.

Meteorologist Sophie Yeomans said: “There is some rainfall around, but it’s looking light and patchy. There’s light cloud and rain around in some of the areas in the north of England and also down in Shropshire and the West Midlands. But there’s no long-lasting or heavy rain — it’s a good situation.”

In a forecast of the flooding risk in England and Wales, the Environment Agency said: “River flooding is expected to continue in the Lower River Don washlands area in South Yorkshire through to at least Tuesday, where properties will continue to flood and there will be continued travel disruption.”

Communities in parts of central and northern England continued the clean-up after being overwhelmed with water following torrential rain in recent days. The EA for Yorkshire and the North East said there is still lots of flood water in the region, and a pumping operation is under way to reduce water levels.

In an online message, Martin Christmas of the EA, said: “We are starting to think about moving from emergency rescue response into recovery and that means looking at our flood warnings and then starting to think about all the inspections we need to do to look at potential repairs for banks and flood assets based on the loading they have received from the water in the last week. We have still got tens of people out there in the field carrying on with pumping activity trying to get levels at Fishlake reduced and we are also keeping an eye on East Yorkshire as well.”

The Met Office said its Sheffield weather station has recorded its wettest ever autumn. It tweeted: “With 15 days still to go, the site has already recorded 427.6 mm of #rain. The previous record was set in 2000 with 425.2 mm of rain falling between September 1 and November 30 that year.”

There is also a “risk of seeing a very cold start” on Tuesday, according to Yeomans, with potential temperatures of minus 5C.