Amber warning as more heavy rain to hit flooded areas


The Met Office has warned that heavy rain is expected to cause widespread flooding across parts of England that were affected by downpours earlier this week. An amber warning, which is more serious, has been issued for some areas in central and midlands England, predicting further flooding and travel disruption as a month’s worth of rain could pour down. Meanwhile, yellow rain warnings still remain in place for other parts of England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The areas in central and southern England are still recovering from floods from the weekend and Monday which left roads and fields submerged, rail services disrupted and rivers overflowing.

The Environment Agency currently has 27 flood warnings and 69 flood alerts in place across England. The Met Office says that some areas covered by the new amber warning could experience 30-40mm of rainfall in three hours or less, and around 50-60mm or more in about six hours. The areas under the amber warning include Oxfordshire, Leicestershire, Bedfordshire, Gloucestershire, Cambridgeshire, Buckinghamshire, and Worcestershire. BBC lead weather presenter Matt Taylor stated that some places within the amber warning area could see close to a month’s worth of rainfall overnight and given how saturated the ground is due to earlier rains this week, existing flooding could be exacerbated further.   

More travel disruptions are expected as rivers will continue to rise after the rain clears. Moreover, nearly all areas, except for western areas of the UK, will see their temperatures drop this week and much colder weather is in store for the weekend. A few showers cannot be ruled out, but are not expected to be on the same scale as seen this week. On Tuesday evening, emergency services rescued 43 people from a holiday park in Northampton, after caravans were left surrounded by water from a nearby river which had burst its banks. Areas including Buckinghamshire, Northamptonshire and Warwickshire were among the worst hit on Monday. 

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