Dozens of flood warnings still in place as heavy rain swells rivers

People living near rivers should unfortunately stay on alert today, with dozens of flood warnings across England.

In total, 33 red warnings where flooding is expected were in place and 74 yellow alerts where flooding is possible were in place last night, with the government warning that flood risk would remain high in many areas for several days.

It comes after a difficult week for weather, with widespread flooding including the M5 motorway cut off by water over all three lanes of the carriageway, and a football stadium completely underwater.

Warnings and alerts issued by the Environment Agency cover almost all of the country, from south Devon near Plymouth to Derbyshire and East Anglia, with problems particularly concentrated in central England.

Yellow weather warnings for rain will remain in place on Monday with conditions easing in the south by 9am but continuing to be risky in eastern England all day until 3am on Tuesday.

Previously, all the warnings had been expected to be lifted this morning but now the Met Office say even more rain is on the way with the country already saturated.

Another new warning covers North Wales and north-west England between 00.30am on Monday and 8pm the same day.

Both new warnings forecast between 20-40mm of rainfall widely, with 60mm also possible in a few places across North Wales and north-west England and between 60-80mm in some areas in eastern England, the Met Office said.

Met Office meteorologist Liam Eslick said they are expecting some ‘pretty heavy persistent rain’ across North Wales and north-west England and North Wales will get the brunt of the rain.

The higher grounds in eastern England will see the most rainfall, with areas including Northamptonshire and Bedfordshire seeing less but already being saturated by recent heavy rain, he added.

The Environment Agency had 33 flood warnings, indicating flooding is expected, and 67 flood alerts, where flooding is possible, in place across England on Sunday afternoon.

Mark Garratt, flood risk manager at the Environment Agency, said rain expected on Sunday and Monday will bring a risk of surface water flooding in large parts of the south west and southern England, spreading up into the Midlands, and on Monday, flooding in parts of Leicestershire is also possible.

He said: ‘It is especially important that people not to drive though flood water – it is often deeper than it looks and just 30cm of flowing water is enough to float your car.

‘Across the country, Environment Agency teams have been out checking flood defences and clearing any debris from storm drains and are also supporting local authorities in responding to surface water flooding.

‘The advice to the public to keep checking their flood risk, and search ‘check for flooding’ and to sign up for free flood warnings on the latest situation or follow @‌EnvAgency on X for the latest flood updates.’

It comes after areas across England suffered flooding in recent days, with commuters facing widespread disruption on road and rail services.

According to the Met Office, some counties in southern and central England have already had more than 250% of their average September rainfall.

Parts of the country had more than the monthly average rainfall on Monday last week and there were further downpours on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

About 650 properties were flooded in Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire and the home counties, according to the Environment Agency, which estimated around 8,200 properties had been protected.

By Tuesday night higher pressure will move in, meaning a drier, sunnier spell, the forecaster said.

Mr Eslick added: ‘Come Tuesday night into Wednesday we’re starting to see higher pressure, so turning a lot drier and plenty of sunny spells.

‘But the following weekend, it does look like there’s a further low pressure coming in, but we’re still keeping an eye on that.’

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