Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Weekend washout as ‘atrocious’ weather hits road and rail users
IT’S time to batten down the hatches as torrential rain is about to sweep across the country.
Road and rail travellers should expect “atrocious conditions” in some places, with the Environment Agency issuing 27 flood warnings and 104 flood alerts.
And the Met Office put out a yellow rain warning that stretched from Birmingham, Lincoln and Hull to North Wales, Liverpool and Manchester, as well as the east coast up to the Scottish border.
Met Office spokesman Craig Snell said: “The warning areas are where we are most concerned about the risk of flooding.
“But it doesn’t mean that the areas outside them are not going to see some pretty atrocious conditions.”
Scotland and the North East of England will bear the brunt of the bad weather over the weekend.
Mr Snell said Scotland could suffer two days of persistent rain.
He added: “If you want to take a walk in the hills in Scotland tomorrow, you may come across snow but for the lower levels it is just going to be rain.”
Rail passengers have been warned to expect longer journey times when speed restrictions are brought in on some routes due to extreme rainfall.
And Mr Snell said a warning is in place for the South East, explaining: “It has been quite wet there since the beginning of November, with many places already seeing more than their month’s share of rain.”
Flooding caused widespread problems yesterday with the M23 closed in both directions between Junctions 10 and 11 in West Sussex due to standing water on the carriageway.
The section was reopened after several hours but some lanes remained closed.
Some rail lines were also affected, with disruption between Tonbridge in Kent and Hastings in East Sussex due to flooding in a tunnel.
On the Isle of Wight, downpours caused the cancellation of some trains.