The Guardian Parts of Britain are back on flood alert after fresh downpours across the country yesterday, while farmers estimated the bad weather had already cost them millions of pounds this winter. Motorists in the south-east were warned of widespread surface flooding. Weather forecasters said a deep Atlantic depression was responsible for the prolonged rain which spread across southern England and Wales. Ankle-high water can sweep a pedestrian off their feet. A car will float at knee height.
Many roads are under water at levels which are potentially dangerous.
The number of flood warnings in England and Wales rose by three overnight to 32, the agency added. Nationally, the situation was stable. Colne between Uxbridge and Staines, south-west London, and on two more stretches of the Great Ouse in Buckinghamshire. In Kent, flood warnings of imminent threat to life and property were later issued on the rivers Teise and Lesser Teise between Lamberhurst and Yalding, and the Beult from Pluckley to Yalding. In East Sussex, the river Cuckmere and the Rother between Mayfield and Newenden were also on flood warning, as were the Upper and Lower Test Valley, and the Upper and Lower Itchen Valley in Hampshire.