Sunday, February 23, 2014

MONTH'S worth of rain

set to fall in one hour

tomorrow - but then

Spring's on its way

The Met office has issued a yellow weather warning for parts of north west England, south west Scotland and north west Wales

Here we go again: A man wades through the water

Almost a month of rain is expected to fall on parts of the UK in just a few hours tomorrow - and the downpour will be followed by 70mph winds.

But the good news is spring is on the way with the promise of much more settled weather.

Cumbria, north west Wales and southern Scotland were due to get the worst of the downpour, with up to three inches drenching the regions.

Most of the rain was expected to fall over high ground, with towns and villages escaping the deluge.

The wet and windy conditions are expected to continue in the coming days.

Met Office forecaster Charles Powell said: “We do have a yellow warning in place for much of south west Scotland, north west England including Cumbria and into the north west of Wales.

“It is mainly going to effect the hills and mountains in those areas.

“There is a potential for as much as 80mm (3in) across parts of the Cumbrian fells.”

The average rainfall for Cumbria in February is usually up to four inches.

“In the south there will be not an awful lot of rainfall, it will be mostly dry and mild” he said.

“Going forward into the week the weather will continue to be unsettled, it will be blustery, windy and a mixture of sun and showers for most of the UK, but temperatures will remain mild.”

He added: “It is quite a changeable, unsettled week but it is kind of normal. That is the best way of describing it for late winter.

“It is not a terrible week, it is not settled, but it is not summer, it is pretty seasonal.”

“We have a handful of cold and frosty mornings but apart from that it has not been desperately cold and it doesn’t look as though it will next week.

“It might turn a bit colder next weekend, the winds turning round to north westerly, bringing something a bit colder, perhaps a bit drier as well, but even then it is not going to be drastically cold.

“Day time temperatures will be close to average.”

Saturday brings the first day of spring and Mr Powell said: “It looks as though there could be some relatively settled weather for the first week of March.

“What does look as though it might happen is that we might see a build up of pressure from the south, which is good news, it will tend to bring something more settled for a bit longer, at least across south parts of the UK.

“It would tend to mean it is still relatively changeable, you can still get some unsettled weather in spring, but it looks as if the majority is going to be across the north and west of the UK rather than across the whole of the UK.”