Flood alerts hit South West after more autumnal heavy rain

A yellow Met Office weather warning for rain remains in force

Author: Oliver Morgan & William Warnes and Jordan Reynolds, PAPublished 16th Oct 2024

Residents up and down the West Country are being urged to check before travelling - and make sure you're 'prepared' after another wave of rain hit our region overnight.

A Met Office weather warning remains in place until midday today (16 October) for rain, which seems to have been soaked into land which was already getting saturated from the recent downpours.

In a warning last night, Wiltshire Council said: "It’s another very wet night and there is a lot of water on Wiltshire's roads.

"Please take extra care on the roads tonight and tomorrow morning.

"Allow extra time for your journey, drive to the conditions and watch out for standing water. Do not drive through floodwater."

The Environment Agency has imposed a number of flood alerts, with locals told the levels, particularly on lower levels of ground, are being monitored 'closely'.

The flood alerts map 16/10/2024

This all comes as temperatures could hit 20C in parts of the UK tomorrow, while flooding is possible as a yellow weather warning for heavy rain continues.

Mild weather is forecast for Wednesday, with highs of 20C or 21C in the south - about 5C warmer than the average for this time of year - while 13-18C is forecast for most, the forecaster added.

And a yellow weather warning for rain is in place until midday on Wednesday, stretching from Plymouth and reaching as far north as Manchester, covering parts of north-west and south-west England, Wales and the West Midlands.

Over the last 12 hours, about an inch of rainfall has been seen widely across the warning area, with 10-20mm forecast to continue for many areas and 50mm could be seen locally, Met Office meteorologist Greg Dewhurst said.

The forecaster warned spells of heavy rain could lead to travel disruption and flooding in places.

Mr Dewhurst said: "Outbreaks of rain have been pushing north across the night, the weather warning is in place until midday.

"The rain is quite extensive across parts of Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales and the west of England, and when it's not raining it's cloudy, misty and murky.

"It will stay pretty similar in terms of the areas that will see the outbreaks of rain, it could be heavy at times.

"The driest will likely be across the east and south-east of England.

"It will start to become drier across the south-western parts overnight; by the end of the night it will be more restricted to parts of Scotland and north-east England.

"Tomorrow there will be rain first thing across Scotland and north-east England. It will quickly clear and be a much brighter day for everyone. There will be a few showers but lots of places will stay dry and temperatures will be between 16-19C."

The forecaster added that on Friday there will be a west and east split developing with cloud and rain in western parts of the UK while central and eastern areas will be dry with sunny spells. Temperatures will be between 13-16C.

The warning comes after heavy rainfall caused widespread flooding across the UK in September and early October.

Some counties of England saw their wettest September on record, receiving three times the normal rainfall, and Oxfordshire and Bedfordshire had their wettest months ever - although the rain came after a drier than normal summer for much of the UK.

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