Flood warnings across England and Wales as rain relents

Many areas of England are bracing for flooding despite a respite from heavy downpours.

Parts of central and southern England experienced over a month’s worth of rain in a matter of hours over Sunday and Monday, causing roads and schools to close and wreaking transport chaos on commuters.

While Tuesday is not expected to bring further rain, there are more than 25 Environment Agency flood warnings — meaning that flooding is expected — in place for England. There are also 65 flood alerts, which is defined as flooding being possible.

The areas affected include parts of Northampton, Somerset, Buckinghamshire, and Worcestershire stretching down to Newport just across the border with Wales. Areas surrounding the River Great Ouse are also largely affected.

The Environment Agency said river levels were expected to stabilise and drop through Tuesday morning and were being monitored closely.

Flooding in Bedfordshire is among the most severe and the A421 road remains closed with no timescale for its reopening. Local people have dubbed the road “Bedfordshire’s new river.”

BBC Weather’s Matt Taylor said “the good news” is that the worst of the rainfall is now over, but “the impacts of the recent torrential rain will continue to be felt for a while yet”.

He said given the amount of rainfall, it will take a while for some of that to soak into the ground and work through the river system, meaning “some areas could see rivers continue to rise over the next couple of days”.

Parts of Bedfordshire, Oxfordshire, Warwickshire and Northamptonshire saw more than 100mm of rain (4 ins) in the last 48 hours with Woburn in Bedfordshire seeing 132mm (5.2 ins) recorded.

Due to flooding between Rugby and Milton Keynes Central, Avanti West Coast trains have to run at reduced speed on all lines. Train services running through these stations may be cancelled or delayed, Avanti West Coast warned passengers.

Train services in Kent and Sussex are still facing disruption as Network Rail engineers were unable to complete full repairs to part of the signalling system following flooding on the line.

Chiltern Railways said trains between Banbury and Bicester North were running at reduced speed on all lines due to heavy rain flooding the railway.

BBC Weather said Tuesday and early Wednesday will be much drier, with sunny spells, before another area of rain sweeps across the country later on Wednesday and into Thursday.

A yellow weather warning for rain on Thursday is in place across parts of northern England and the north Midlands. The heaviest rainfall is likely to be across the Pennines and North York Moors.

These downpours are not expected “to be as impactful as recent rain”, then much cooler weather “will grab the attention of most of us later in the week, as northerly winds drop the temperature more widely across the UK.”

Highs of around 16C (61F) are forecast for southern England.

“As the system that we have had moves its way off towards the east, we start to get a bit more of a northerly flow so we’re bringing in those cooler northerly winds,” the Met Office said.

A gradual decline in temperatures will continue through Wednesday and Thursday but it is unlikely any frost will develop with plenty of cloud around.