A soaking for some in great weather divide
DOWNPOURS caused flood chaos across Britain yesterday as a month’s rain fell in a matter of hours.
But while eastern, central and southern parts took the brunt of the deluge, the West and Northwest basked in sunshine.
Yorkshire and Lincolnshire were among the hardest-hit regions with driving rain bringing traffic to a standstill.
More than two inches hit Bridlington, East Yorks, during the early hours with one-and-a-half inches recorded in Bodmin, Cornwall, and an inch in Devon.
By yesterday afternoon another inch had soaked parts of Hampshire with similar amounts recorded in London and across the South-east.
The seaside towns on the Yorkshire coast and parts of north-east Lincolnshire including Grimsby and Immingham were left under floodwater.
Humberside fire and rescue service responded to calls from around the region amid fears the River Humber would burst its banks. Cars were left stranded in waterlogged roads as people took to social media to report torrents of floodwater.
Great Grimsby MP Melanie Onn tweeted that some constituency routes were “like a river” rising “over my ankles”.
The Environment Agency issued alerts across southern, central and northern England as the deluge fell.
Driving rain moved through the country during the day with swathes of southern and eastern England drenched by lunchtime.
Dangerous
Flooding at a London ticket hall led to Victoria line and Great Northern trains not stopping at Highbury and Islington.
Thames Valley Police urged people across the region to take care on the roads as rain continued to fall.
One officer said: “Even main roads and the M4 are dangerous because of all the surface water, but people are tearing along at The sunny conditions in the North-west yesterday were in sharp contrast to southern England where shoppers and tourists braved the downpours 70mph plus. There is standing water on some roads and you only have to hit that at speed and it’s like running into a lake. The car can aquaplane and you lose control.
“And on main roads and the motorway, people are driving too close to the car in front and are being blinded by the spray that’s thrown up. It’s like driving in a dense fog.”
After a brief respite from the rain today the Met Office warned more wind and rain is on the way tomorrow.
Spokesman Grahame Madge said: “Thursday is looking like a pretty decent day with temperatures of between 70F (21C) and 73F in parts of the South-east and mostly in the high teens elsewhere.
“Another low pressure system will come in during the early hours of Friday bringing more rain from Cornwall right up into parts of Scotland.
“Rain will continue through until tea time and there will be some very strong winds across exposed coasts in the North.”
Forecasts for more miserable wet weather prompted bookmakers Ladbrokes to last night slash the odds from 6-1 to 2-1 on August turning out to be the wettest on record.
LOND