Officials: The UK is not on lockdown due to winter flooding, but people should be prepared

The UK is not “stuck” in a winter of increased flood risk despite recent wet weather, officials have said, but urged people to plan for all eventualities.

Met Office and Environment Agency officials are urging people to be prepared for floods as they launch ‘Flood Action Week’ on the anniversary of Storm Babet, which cause major flooding across the country.

And experts warn that climate change is making extreme weather events happen more often, with downpours that caused flooding as a series of storms hit the country last winter made more intense by global warming induced by humans.

England endured the wettest 18 months on record to March 2024, with storms and downpours flooding homes, disrupting transport and leaving farmers’ fields waterlogged for months and affecting crops this year

Last month, some counties in England saw their wettest September on record, receiving three times the normal rainfall, and Oxfordshire and Bedfordshire had their wettest months on record, although the rains came following a drier than normal summer across much of the UK.

And the variation in conditions across the UK in September, with northern areas experiencing drier than average weather, means that overall rainfall for the month was only slightly above the national average.

Dr Will Lang of the Met Office said many areas remained very wet, rivers were high and the ground was sensitive to rain, particularly in southern and central England, which had such a wet September.

But he said that doesn’t mean it will stay that way throughout the fall and winter, saying “there’s still time for things to reset,” with more stable conditions likely to prevail in the coming weeks.

Lang said it was too early to identify the prevailing weather conditions for the coming months, but pointed to a La Nina weather pattern likely to start developing in the Pacific which tends to favor cooler and drier conditions in the UK early of the winter

“Despite the recent wet weather, particularly in England, we are not yet locked into a high flood risk winter.

“There is still time over the next few weeks for rivers and soil conditions in England to return to normal levels if we see drier conditions dominate here over the next few weeks and last until late autumn,” he said.

But he added that “everything was still on the table”, and warned that even if the country ended up with a normal winter, some flooding was expected.

“The advice is, as we would normally say, plan for everything, because a normal winter even then can include extreme weather and some flooding, and there’s still a chance, a possibility, that it will be wet and flood-prone. winter or, on the contrary, a dry winter”, he said.

Caroline Douglass, chief executive of coastal and flood risk management at the Environment Agency, said: “Climate change means extreme weather events are happening more often and we’ve already seen an unusually wet September of this year

“We cannot always predict where the rain will fall or where floods will occur, but we do know which areas are at risk.

“That’s why it’s essential that we all do our part by checking our flood risk and registering for flood warnings this Flood Action Week.”

People are being urged to check their long-term flood risk, using a free government service to check the flood risk of an area in England and signing up to receive flood warnings by phone, text or email.

They are also asked to take steps to protect themselves and their homes by keeping important documents in a safe and waterproof place, taking carpets and small furniture upstairs and checking how to turn off the electricity and water.

Around 5.5 million properties in England are at risk of flooding, according to officials.

And Ms Douglass warned people should never drive through floodwaters, with 30cm of water enough to float a car, removing the vehicle and putting the lives of those inside at risk.

Floods Minister Emma Hardy said: “Through the recent launch of our Flood Resilience Task Force, this Government is taking decisive action to accelerate the development of flood defenses and strengthen the nation’s resilience against extreme weather conditions.

“But this Flood Action Week, we all need to be proactive in taking steps to protect ourselves by checking our flood risk and registering for flood warnings.”