UK News

Two weeks of rain hit the UK in twenty four hours

Tuesday, 9th September 2008

Updated on Tuesday 9th September
Written by Francesca Cookney

The words ‘severe weather warnings’ have become rather commonplace on UK weather reports. And it won’t come as a surprise to many that last month marked one of the wettest Augusts on record but today the Met office announced that half a month’s rain could be set to fall in just one day over parts of England and Wales.

Firefighters in Lydney, Gloucestershire have been dispatched to desperate families helping to pump out water from dozens of flooded homes for the second time this year while a car in Wales had to be airlifted to safety after becoming stranded in floodwater.

The heavy rain and gales have been sweeping in off the Atlantic all week even leading to sightings of funnel clouds above the western islands of Wales.

If such clouds touch ground they can turn into tornadoes, generating winds of up to 80mph but this kind of weather is extremely rare, even if the torrential rain is not. We can look forward to a few drier days, though, with the Met office’s long term outlook predicting less rain than normal over the Autumn months.

However, with more people than ever suffering from seasonal affective disorder after such a dismal summer, not to mention the residents of Gloucestershire, this is unlikely to be much consolation.