'We do expect flooding this Winter' say Met Office, 'but it's too early to say how much'
The Met Office and Environment Agency been giving an update on their long-range forecasts after the wettest 18-months on record
Today marks a year since Storm Babet damaged seafronts across parts of the West Country, with the Met Office saying this Winter could be calmer.
They've been giving an update on their long-range forecasts after the wettest 18-months on record.
Across the South West this morning. there's a number of flood alerts in force including on the River Tone catchment, Rver Teign, Congresbury Yeo in North Somerset and River Chew catchment
Caroline Douglass, who oversees Flood Risk for the Environment Agency and says we shouldn't get complacent, adding: "Storm Babet saw over 2,000 properties flooded. We need to continue to take the threat and risk of flooding really seriously in this country.
"It will happen, even in a Winter this is average, as we might have, we will get flooding in some places."
Today also marks the start of 'flood action week' with officials saying the UK is not "locked into" a winter of higher flood risk despite the recent wet weather and ongoing impacts of climate change.
England endured its wettest 18 months on record up to March 2024, with storms and downpours flooding homes, disrupting transport and leaving farmers' fields waterlogged for months and hitting this year's harvest.
Last month, 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 rainfall came after a drier than normal summer for much of the UK.
Dr Will Lang, from the Met Office, said many areas remained very wet, rivers were high and ground was sensitive to rain, particularly in southern and central England which had such a wet September.
But he said that did not mean it would continue that way throughout the autumn and winter, saying there was "still time for things to reset", with more settled conditions likely to prevail in the next few weeks.
Dr Lang said it was too early to identify prevailing weather conditions for the coming few months, but pointed to a La Nina weather pattern likely to start developing in the Pacific which tends to favour cooler and drier conditions in the UK in the start of winter.
He said: "Despite the recent wet weather, especially across England, we are not yet locked into a winter of elevated flood risk.
"There is still time over the coming weeks for rivers and ground conditions in England to return to normal levels, should we see the drier conditions dominate here over the coming weeks and last into late autumn," he said.
But he added that "everything was still on the table", and warned that even if the country ended up with a normal winter, some flooding was to be expected.
"The advice is, as we would usually say, plan for everything, because a normal winter can even then include extremes of weather and some flooding, and there is still a probability, a possibility, of it either being a wet and flood-prone winter or conversely, a dry winter."
Caroline Douglass, executive director of flood and coastal risk management for the Environment Agency, said: "Climate change means extreme weather events are happening more frequently, and we have already seen an unusually wet September this year.
"We can't always predict where the rain will fall or where flooding will occur, but we do know which areas are at risk.
"That is why it is essential we all do our part by checking our flood risk and signing up for flood warnings this Flood Action Week."
People are being urged to check their long term flood risk, using a free Government service to check the risk of flooding for an area in England, and sign up for flood warnings by phone, text or email.
They are also being urged to take steps to protect themselves and their homes, by keeping important documents in a secure, waterproof location, taking rugs and small furniture upstairs, and checking how to turn off electricity and water.
Around 5.5 million properties in England are at risk from flooding, officials say.