Flood levels falling but more rain to come

Buy photos » River levels in Evesham are beginning to recede after flooding over Christmas.

FLOOD levels are beginning to recede after the Vale suffered a soggy Christmas.

Several days of heavy rain saw the River Avon put on flood warning and forced the usual roads succeptable to flooding close including Waterside in Evesham.

Just under 60mm of rain has fallen in the area over the past week with 90mm recorded in December so far. This means 150 per cent of the average for the whole of the month has already fallen up to December 27 with more expected in the coming days.

Met Office statistics show 900mm of rain has been recorded so far this year, more than 200mm above the long term annual average, which is why the ground is so saturated. 2012 is on course to be one of the wettest years since records began.

River levels peaked at 3.36 metres on Christmas Day (Tuesday), just over half a metre less than in November, but yesterday (Thursday) as we went to press, its level was 2.55 metres above normal and slowly falling. The Environment Agency had also downgraded its status to flood alert.

The Met Office is warning of more heavy rain tomorrow (Friday) overnight and over the weekend, although there will be some drier slots in between.

Helen Chivers from the Met Office said: "The weather will stay unsettled but very mild and windy over the next few days.

"The heaviest of the rain looks, at present, to be overnight Friday into Saturday and again Sunday into Monday."

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