Flood alerts have been issued across England and Wales ahead of heavy rain forecast for the run-up to Christmas, as the Met Office issued a weather warning after downpours over the weekend.
A yellow weather warning for rain in mid and south Wales, as well as southern England, is in place from 6am on Wednesday until 6am Thursday, with 50mm to 70mm of rain expected to fall in south Wales. Disruption to travel and power lines is expected, and officials have warned people to stay alert for potential flooding.
The Environment Agency has also issued eight flood warnings for areas where heavy rainfall is expected, including in areas close to Keswick campsite in Cumbria, the River Don and Dutch River at West Cowick in east Yorkshire, Cogenhoe Mill caravan site in Northamptonshire, between Worcester and Gloucester along the Severn, and parts of Wareham in Dorset.
Sixty-eight flood alerts, for places where flooding is possible, are also in place across England and Wales.
Clearer skies are expected for much of Scotland and Northern Ireland, where temperatures will be cooler and a sprinkling of coastal showers are expected.
Simon Partridge, a Met Office forecaster, said: “We’ve had quite a lot of rain in recent weeks across much of the southern half of the UK, so at the moment the ground is quite saturated and river levels are already fairly high.
“There is a risk of localised flooding within the warning area, and there will be dangerous driving conditions as well.
“Parts of the south-west in particular have already seen some flooding earlier in the week, so this is really just going to add to the current issues in some of those places.”
A number of flood warnings and alerts were in place across south Wales last weekend after torrential downpours.
Natural Resources Wales said it was advising people to watch out for flood alerts and warnings in the run-up to Christmas Day, and reminded people not to attempt to walk or drive through flood water.
Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are expected to be cold but dry, welcome news to many people across the country hoping to meet up with loved ones outside owing to coronavirus restrictions.
“Although there won’t be a white Christmas with snow, there will be a very widespread frost across much of the UK first thing on Christmas Day morning,” said Partridge.
