So much for dry January!
Heavy rainfall set to bring flood misery
WITH swollen rivers already bursting their banks across the country, fresh downpours are threatening to bring the misery of more flooding this week.
Britain is braced for ‘heavy, persistent rain’ and strong winds that could cause further chaos to roads, rails and power supplies.
Forecasters said there will be no let-up in the wet weather – with four inches of rain predicted in parts of Wales tomorrow.
Yesterday 30 flood warnings were in place for England, four for Scotland and two for Wales. However, many other areas were placed on flood alert meaning flooding was ‘possible’.
Streets in York and Shrewsbury, in Shropshire, were under water yesterday as the Rivers Ouse and Severn broke their banks. Cars in Builth Wells in Powys, Wales, also struggled on the roads after heavy rainfall flooded the River Wye.
Today is expected to be cold and wet in the North, but drier in the South, before the whole of the UK is deluged tomorrow.
The Met Office has issued a yelweek
‘Very wet and windy all week’
low weather warning for heavy rain between 6am to 8pm tomorrow in Wales, north-west England and parts of the Midlands.
The downpours are likely to cause chaos for morning commuters on the road and train networks, and risk bringing localised flooding to homes and businesses, as well as some cuts to power supplies, it said.
The rain is forecast to spread north and eastwards across the whole of the UK, with two to three inches expected to fall on higher ground in Cumbria, and as much as four inches predicted for parts of Snowdonia.
More heavy showers, coupled with strong winds are predicted throughout Wednesday and Thursday.
Simon Partridge, a forecaster with the Met Office, said although it would be very wet, temperatures would stay fairly mild tomorrow at 12C to 13C (53F-55F) making it feel ‘more like October than January’.
But he added: ‘It’s not great. We are going to be flipping between very wet and windy days all week. It’s all due to the jet stream which has been sat across the north of the UK for a or so now, bringing one lot of wet weather after another.’
Mr Partridge said tomorrow and Thursday would be the wettest. ‘Most places are going to see some rain on those days,’ he said. ‘Tuesday in particular will see heavy, persistent rain, especially across west Wales and north-west England. In between,
Wednesday and Friday will feel cooler, with some sunshine but also blustery showers.
‘It’s going to be windy all week and that wind chill will make it feel colder if you are out and about in it.’
But Mr Partridge said he was hopeful that the second half of the month would be drier
and more settled, with more wintry conditions.
‘The second half of January does look as if it will be more settled,’ he added.
‘It will be drier, with frosty mornings, so it will be more like what we come to expect from winter. It will start to feel like January instead of October.’