More downpours elevate flood risk

Much of the UK has seen heavy downpours in the last 24 hours as an area of low pressure sits over us with strong winds and rain spiralling around it.

The Isle of Wight Festival has been drenched with fields quickly becoming waterlogged. Festival goers have had to trudge around in muddy conditions and people trying to get to the site have been forced to sleep in their cars overnight.

There’s no doubt that there’s a sense of irony in all the wet weather that we’ve been experiencing during that last few months. It seems that ever since the drought and subsequent hosepipe bans were declared, it hasn’t stopped raining.

Whilst the rain has provided welcome relief for our water resources that were looking worryingly stressed in the spring, a lot of people have been saying to me that they’ve had enough of the downpours and want some warmth and sunshine.

So just how wet has June been so far? Today the Environment Agency released their latest weekly water situation report which showed that up until 19 June, England and Wales as a whole has had 162 per cent of the average June rainfall – this with 11 days of the month remaining.

The wettest area has been the Environment Agency’s South East region which during the same period has had 192 per cent, almost double the average June rainfall.

During the next 48 hours all eyes are on north west England, north Wales and the far south west of Scotland as persistent, heavy rain could deliver around 40-70mm, especially across the hills and mountains. In a few locations there could be as much as 100mm.

The Met Office has issued a number of warnings for heavy rain and the Environment Agency has put north west England at a medium risk of surface and river flooding during Friday and Saturday.

At the time of writing there are no flood warnings in force, but the number of flood alerts is increasing – especially across north west England.

As I mentioned in my blog last week, the cause of this unsettled weather is the position of the jet stream. Normally at this time of year it sits to the north west of the UK taking low pressure, wind and rain towards Iceland and Scandinavia. At the moment, it’s sitting to the south of the UK which puts us in the firing line for unseasonable weather.

With Wimbledon set to start on Monday, many will be wondering whether flutes of champagne will sparkle in the sunshine or be diluted by falling rain drops.

Given the latest information, it looks like a ridge of high pressure will give a relatively quieter spell of weather for most of us during Monday and Tuesday.

For Wimbledon specifically, Monday and Tuesday look mainly dry with sunny spells and a temperature of around 20C. However, from midweek onwards there’s an increasing chance of some showers as well as rising humidity which would make centre court a bit sticky.

Don’t forget you can get the latest forecast on the Channel 4 Weather website and you can contact me at anytime on Twitter – @liamdutton