UK weather: Met Office warns of floods and heavy downpours sparking Easter holiday travel chaos with hundreds of alerts
FLOODS and heavy downpours are set to cause Easter holiday travel chaos, forecasters say.
10 flood warnings – meaning flooding is expected – and 112 flood alerts are in place across England.
The latest flood warning, issued overnight by the Environment Agency, is for the River Brue in Somerset.
Roads at risk include those in Catsham, Cowbridge and West Lydford, and the B3151 Glastonbury to Meare Road.
Properties on Dyehouse Lane, Glastonbury, are at risk from the Glastonbury Millstream overtopping, and river overtopping at Baltonsborough is expected.
Although rainfall has largely passed out of the area, the River Brue is expected to remain high into Monday afternoon.
Heavy rain drenched the south of England and parts of Wales on Sunday evening, with the Met Office forecasting further heavy showers to develop in the south throughout Monday.
Liam Eslick, a forecaster at the Met Office, said there is a “risk of localised flooding” in some areas.
Mr Eslick said: “Being the bank holiday weekend, people are travelling around at this time, so we’d recommend checking road coverage if people are driving or any bus and train timetables to see if there are any cancellations.”
The RAC and transport analysis company Inrix said 2.01 million leisure journeys will be made by car on Easter Monday, with the lengthiest delays expected between 10am and noon.
Guidance on the Met Office website encourages drivers to reduce their speeds, as rain can reduce visibility, and give themselves more time to brake on slippery road surfaces – suggesting a gap of at least four seconds between traffic.
Areas in the north of England and Scotland are expected to be much sunnier throughout the day and experience less rain, the weather service said.
Kathryn Chalk, a meteorologist at the Met Office, said: “We’ll see further spells of heavy rain coming in, pushing its way northwards through Easter Monday.
“Probably a damp start, especially across Wales, central England and northeastern parts as well with further heavy spells of rain here.
FLOOD WARNINGS
Flooding is expected in these areas:
Lower Stour at Redhill and Wheatplot Home Sites
Lower Stour from Sturminster Marshall to Christchurch
River Brue and Glastonbury Millstream from Lovington to Highbridge, low lying properties
River Severn at Abbots Court, Deerhurst
River Severn at Apperley and The Leigh
River Severn at Chaceley and Haw Bridge
River Severn at Court Meadow, Kempsey and Callow End
River Severn at Hanley Road, Upton upon Severn
River Severn at Severn Ham, Tewkesbury
Upper Frome from Maiden Newton to Dorchester
“Further towards the south, if we do see any clouds breaking up we could see heavy showers again in the afternoon.”
No weather warnings have been issued, but the showers could see between 5mm and 15mm of rainfall.
The outlook will remain unsettled after the long weekend, with low pressure dominating and spells of heavy rain likely.
Tuesday is forecast to be a largely dry day with light winds, some scattered showers could break out in parts of the south, although confidence in weather details decreases significantly through the day.
Deputy chief metereologist, Dan Harris, said: “At present Tuesday looks mostly settled, between one area of low pressure responsible for Monday’s rain in the south or southeast, clearing to the east, and another low arriving from the southwest later.
“How quickly this second low and associated rain arrives is a significant point of uncertainty in the longer-range forecast.
“But it will herald a further spell through early April of unsettled weather focused particularly across southern areas; best chance of any more settled conditions, and probably colder conditions, will be across the north of the UK.”