Flood warnings across England and Wales as rain eases

Despite a break in the heavy rain, many areas of England are preparing for flooding.

In parts of central and southern England, more rain fell in just a few hours on Sunday and Monday than would normally fall in a month. Roads and schools had to be closed and traffic was chaotic for commuters.

Although no further rain is expected on Tuesday, there are more than 25 Environment Agency flood warnings in place for England, predicting flooding, and 65 flood alerts, predicting flooding as possible.

The areas affected include parts of Northampton, Somerset, Buckinghamshire and Worcestershire down to Newport just across the Welsh border. The areas around the River Great Ouse are also badly affected.

The Environment Agency said river levels are expected to stabilise and fall by Tuesday morning and are being closely monitored.

The flooding in Bedfordshire is among the worst and the A421 remains closed with no timetable for its reopening. Locals have dubbed the road “Bedfordshire's new river”.

BBC Weather's Matt Taylor said the “good news” was that the worst of the rains were now over, but the effects of the recent torrential rains would be felt for some time.

He said given the amount of rainfall, it would take some time for some of the rain to soak into the ground and work its way through the river system, meaning “in some areas, river levels could continue to rise over the next few days.”

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

Due to flooding between Rugby and Milton Keynes Central, Avanti West Coast trains are having to operate at reduced speeds on all routes. Trains calling at these stations may be cancelled or delayed, Avanti West Coast warned passengers.

Disruptions to train services continue in Kent and Sussex as Network Rail engineers have been unable to fully repair parts of the signalling system following flooding on the line.

Chiltern Railways said trains were operating at reduced speeds on all routes between Banbury and Bicester North as heavy rainfall had caused flooding of the tracks.

According to BBC Weather, Tuesday and Wednesday morning will be significantly drier with sunny spells before rain returns later on Wednesday and Thursday.

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

These downpours are expected to be “not as heavy as the recent rain” as much cooler weather will “capture the attention of most of us later in the week as northerly winds cause temperatures to drop further across the UK.”

Maximum temperatures of around 16 °C (61 °F) are forecast for southern England.

“As the system we had moves east, we get a little bit of a stronger northerly flow, so cooler northerly winds come in,” the Met Office said.

Temperatures will continue to fall gradually through Wednesday and Thursday, but frost is unlikely due to heavy cloud cover.