Heavy Rain, Flooding, High Winds - 19th December -->

[The PIT]

Well the good news is that the main front is pushing through fairly quickly and the latest radar for us indicates the rain turning light around 12 ish. Too see things more clearly on the radar you need to switch to the older style. As ever with these things there's nothing to stop the front slowing down or beefing up further. It seems to gaining strength as it moves east at the moment.

We will probably end up with around half n inch of rain to just over.

[sunny scunny]

It really is hammering down here at the minute, with lots more to come by the looks of the radar. It should start to ease off by early afternoon though.

[The PIT]

Heavier rain now passed and back into the light stuff. Front still getting more active as it moves eastward though.

[Herefordweather]

Yet another band reaching the south west approaches?

[BARRY]

This container was at the end of the village hall in our village it floated round to the front

[picog]

Yet another band reaching the south west approaches?

Do you know if the A49 is clear between Leominster down to Ross? Quite a bit of localised flooding up here, and accessing main roads is the problem for us right now.

[Bobby]

20mm here, the rain eased for a bit but the next load is starting to pile in now. Flooding everywhere in the field, roads. Monday looks concerning too with another load of heavy rain moving up from the SW.

[philglossop]

My father has had 43.4mm since 1pm yesterday. Managed to get out for a little while earlier and it wasn't pretty driving around town- but the roads were certainly quieter that you'd expect the Saturday before Christmas.

Hearing it's bad in Lostwithel now again.

[The PIT]

Now turned to fine drizzle. Just had a walk around the local park Graves Park the streams fairly high but been higher. Plenty of water standing around in places where you wouldn't expect it to be standing. So far 16.6mm according to the Davies another 30 or 40mm would make it rather interesting an probably would result in another 2007 here.

[picog]

Second rain band just reached here.

[TonyH]

Very wet today, 30mm and rising (since midnight), heavy this afternoon, when half inch has fallen.

[Bobby]

40mm here since last night and still pouring, 90mm in 3 days. Some of the roads have become impassible and the rivers and streams are torrents (as are the footpaths). The local trains have been cancelled. I imagine a lot of this rain over Wales will be going into the Severn/Wye so I wonder if there could be flooding downstream there too.

I'm glad to be on a mountain in times like this.

[TonyH]

Passed 40mm since midnight now, a very wet day, even for here! Still pouring.

[Bobby]

24 hours almost non-stop rain now, still hammering down. 55mm today now, some 100mm past 3 days. Rain just keeps coming from nowhere on the radar. Then a few hours break before the next load moves in tomorrow night with another inch or more for the same flooded areas.

NAE 12z:

[TonyH]

Not often so much red over Wales on the past 24 hours:

Close to 100mm in a few high up spots! In spite of this the village river is still within it's banks.

[Matty M]

Severe weather battering much of Ireland right now. A swathe of stronger than expected winds are sweeping across the country.

Sustained Storm Force 10 winds are currently impacting the west coast with a gust to 71 knots in the last hour.

[Zenarcher]

Mace Head in Western Ireland reporting 78mph gusts at 2am.

[Roger J Smith]

Severe windstorm likely in north Wales, northern England and southern Scotland next few hours, will start thread ... models show same intensity as recent passage of trough in Ireland where widespread severe gusts have been reported (from my contacts as well as wx stations). Expect gusts to 90 knots in wind-prone parts of the UK this morning as this looks ideal for lee wave development. Event is meso-scale and will not affect south of England very much if at all.

Edited December 23, 2012 by Roger J Smith

[Coast]

Flood disruption continues as more rain forecast

Flooding and heavy rain are continuing to cause problems in south-west England and parts of Wales and Scotland.

Overnight, a woman was found clinging to a tree after she was swept away from her car near Barnstaple, north Devon. One severe flood warning remains in place in Cornwall and nearly 190 flood warnings in England and Wales. Scotland has 18 flood alerts and 28 flood warnings, mainly for Perthshire, Tayside and Angus. There are reports of flooding in Stonehaven, near Aberdeen. And there are fears for for Brecon, Arbroath and Angus.

Some rail services are still severely disrupted by the weather, with First Great Western advising people not to make non-essential train journeys in south-west England. With more rain expected, rivers in the South West will struggle to cope, the Environment Agency warns. It says there is a heightened flood risk across Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Dorset, Bristol, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, West and East Sussex, North Yorkshire, south Wales, Ceredigion and Gwynedd.

In other developments:

• Rail company First Great Western has advised customers with non-essential journeys in the South West not to attempt to travel on trains or replacement buses, because of flooding and poor road conditions.
  
• Rail services continue to be suspended between Plymouth, Exeter St Davids and Taunton because of flooding. A plastic dam has been placed across the railway line at Exeter to minimise flood damage
  
• Rail services in and out of south Wales have resumed, after being hit by "significant flooding"
  
• Heavy rain has caused two landslides in Looe, Cornwall, which have cut off the nearby the village of Hannafore
  
• A woman was rescued from her car by passers-by after it was swept into a river in Llancarfan in the Vale of Glamorgan
  
• Flood barriers have been put up in Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire, as water in the River Carron continues to rise
  
• Further downpours on Christmas Eve may cause more flooding, with the South West badly hit, the BBC Weather Centre says.
  

BBC forecaster Holly Green said outbreaks of rain would be heaviest in Scotland on Sunday, with the rain returning to the south-west on Christmas Eve. "This rain will be falling on saturated surfaces and will continue to bring a risk of flooding." She added that storm force winds for the Northern Isles and gales affecting Northern Ireland would transfer to parts of southern Scotland and northern England during Sunday morning.

'Flashy rivers'

In Umberleigh, near Barnstaple in north Devon, a woman was swept away from her car in the early hours of Sunday after becoming stuck in fast-flowing flood water. A police helicopter found her clinging to branches of a tree on the banks of the swollen River Taw, and she was rescued by a RNLI lifeboat. She was treated for exposure to the water. A man and child who remained trapped in the car were rescued by firefighters wearing drysuits.

Four people and two dogs trapped in two flooded properties in Bishops Tawton, near Barnstaple, were also rescued overnight by a fire crew and RNLI in-shore boat. Police have warned motorists not to use minor roads north of Barnstaple. In nearby Pilton, residents may have to be evacuated if floodwater from the River Yeo reaches their homes. Emergency accommodation is being provided at Pilton Community College, police said. The River Caen in Braunton has also breached its banks for a second night, and police said the Braunton Academy has been opened as an evacuation assembly point. In the Cornish towns of Helston and Lostwithiel, fire crews remained overnight to respond to any further flooding incidents and tents have been issued to residents in Lostwithiel.

Sam Smith explains how he rescued a woman from a river in south Wales, by breaking her car window with a ladder The River Cober, which broke its banks resulting in devastating flooding on Saturday, has started to recede. But the Environment Agency still has a severe flood warning in force in the Helston area. Nick Ely from the agency said: "There is nowhere in Cornwall that can really cope with the rain that's coming. "Wherever the rain falls, the rivers will respond quickly. We have problems with 'flashy' rivers in Cornwall... where the rivers respond very rapidly with lots of run-off. "We also have these problems with the catchments being so wet, that our bigger rivers... are also filling up and rising very rapidly"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20829807

Edited December 23, 2012 by Coast

[Bobby]

60mm yesterday, 110mm in in 72 hours here.

00z NMM shows another inch or two (25-50mm) across the same flooded areas by dinnertime on Christmas day.

[Coast]

Some very high gusts coming

[philglossop]

Finally finally it's a dry day here. Calm before the next bout though.

Roads have certainly improved- but we can't take anymore rain.

[Ben Sainsbury]

Very confused but earlier rain was forecast at around 7pm in Bristol yet at the moment it looks like it might hit around 1-2am; why is the rain going to arrive so late.

[Jon Somerset]

Fingers crossed this means it's gone further east and we get less as a result.

[Eskimo]

It won't go further east, there's a conveyor belt of moisture stretching from near the Azores, as soon as that moisture hits the land, precipitation will form anywhere where there is land.

Edited December 23, 2012 by PerfectStorm