[T]he Met Office National Severe Weather Warning Service have a Yellow Warning in force for rain.
This has been issued due to the potential for thunderstorms to develop over parts of North West England and Cumbria during the late afternoon and the evening today, Wednesday 19th July 2017 with a risk of some localised flooding possible from torrential downpours.
Current forecasts indicate that for Cumbria the main risk period of seeing any localised flooding impacts will be between 4pm and 11pm today.
Uncertainty as always remains regarding which areas of the county are most at risk of seeing any impacts. These storms should they develop tend to be hit and miss in nature and many areas will see little if any rainfall and remain dry.
Should a storm occur in your locality there will be an increased chance of some localised significant disruption from torrential rainfall which can lead to surface water flooding of roads and even some homes and businesses. The possibility of flooding from smaller rapid responding and urban watercourses also cannot be discounted with the potential worst case of some localised rainfall totals of 15 to 30mm in 1 hour and 40 to 50mm in less than 3 hours.
Please pay attention to your local situation, latest weather forecasts, local media and the Met Office website’s National Severe Weather Warning Service: http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/public/weather/warnings
For advice on the current flooding situation and what to do in event of flooding please refer to Environment Agency’s Flooding Information Service:
https://flood-warning-information.service.gov.uk/
The Environment Agency are monitoring the situation closely and have been raising the awareness of the forecast and alerted key responders to the potential risk of flooding. They have also been working to clear debris screens on watercourses in high risk areas and have increased our resilience in key incident roles to respond if needed.
Flash flooding can occur as a result of thunderstorms please take the following advice
Flash flooding can happen very quickly and there’s often not time to issue Flood Alerts/Warnings in advance, however, the Environment Agency’s Floodline Service can offer free advice on 0345 0988 1188
- Avoid walking or driving through floodwater and take care if travelling as some roads and transport networks could be affected
- Be prepared to activate your personal emergency plan
- Lightning strikes and hail are also potential hazards often associated with these storms and the former can result in localised power outages.
