Britain is braced for another deluge of rain as flood alerts have been put in place across England. Flood barriers have been bolstered along the River Severn in a desperate bid to protect homes as its levels continue to rise.
It comes as 39 flood warnings have been put in place today (Tuesday, December 12) where flooding is ‘expected’, with a further 158 areas in place where flooding is ‘possible’. The Met Office has also actioned two warnings for southern Scotland and the north east of England with 40mm of rain to fall today.
A weekend of wet and windy weather blighted the UK, with one warning for south west Sctoalnd in place until 10am this morning but more are due – an alert for South East Scotland and North East England began at 9am and lasts until 8am tomorrow.
Storm Elin hit the UK on Saturday and Storm Fergus on Sunday sweeping eastwards and bringing with it winds of up to 81mph. Meanwhile bus and train services are expected to face disruption with roads flooded and some homes out of power, the Met Office warned.
Met Office meteorologist Annie Shuttleworth told Mail Online: “After a pretty nice start to the week, things will turn much more unsettled across the UK for Tuesday. Rain pushes up into northeastern areas throughout (Tuesday) morning and then it will linger across northeastern parts of England as well as southeastern Scotland.
“There’s been a lot of rainfall here recently, so the ground is well saturated. Behind that, plenty of showers are developing. These will push into parts of the Midlands by the middle part of the day and without much of a breeze they could be quite long-lasting showers. They bring a risk of hail and thunder as well. So a bit of an unsettled, unpleasant day for many, particularly if you get caught in those showers.”
Today:
Overnight rain will continue to spread eastwards becoming slow moving over parts of Scotland, northern England and Northern Ireland. Elsewhere a mixture of sunny spells and scattered showers, these heavy and thundery at times in the south.
Tonight:
Rather cloudy tonight with showers or outbreaks of rain becoming increasingly confined to southeast Scotland and eastern England. Some clear spells developing in the northwest with a patchy frost forming.
Wednesday:
Cloud and patchy rain clearing the east throughout. To the northwest of this it will be a largely fine and dry day before rain moves into the far north later.
Outlook for Thursday to Saturday:
Showery rain clearing southeast to sunnier skies through Thursday. Mostly cloudy on Friday and Saturday, with drizzle for hills in the north and west. Breezy, with temperatures above average.
