01 May 2012

Flood Warnings Issued After Heavy Rainfall

Flood warnings have been put in place after heavy rain continued to fall around Britain last night.

The Environment Agency has issued 34 flood warnings and 138 flood alerts across parts of southern and eastern England, Wales and the Midlands.

A spokesperson from the Environment Agency said: "After a very wet weekend conditions have generally improved today, but further rain forecast for tonight means that there is still a risk of flooding across many parts of England and Wales with particular focus on Somerset, Dorset and Devon.

"River flows are high after this weekend’s rainfall and we are keeping a close watch on river levels as well as checking defences and clearing any potential blockages to reduce the risk of flooding.

"Our flood defence schemes across the country continue to protect thousands of properties, including 600 homes in Taunton and 25,000 properties along the River Don through Doncaster and Bentley and at Upton on Severn, where our partially completed flood defences were temporarily extended over the weekend to provide flood protection to the town."

This April is the wettest in the UK in records which date back to 1910, according to early Met Office figures.

The UK has already seen 121.8mm of rain so far - significantly more than the 69.6mm you would normally expect for the month and beating the previous record of 120.3mm set in 2000.

Many Met Office observation sites across the UK have broken their individual rainfall records, with six stations so far having seen more than three times their usual monthly average.

(CD/GK)