Met office UK issue severe danger to life status Red Rainfall and Flooding warning for parts of the UK
A red weather warning for "prolonged heavy rain" has been issued for South Wales.
The Met Office said it had issued the warning because it anticipated "severe flooding" across the region.
The UK met office warnings are based on possible impacts that weather events may have compared to Ireland where if there is a risk of certain weather elements meeting the Met Eireann Criteria this then triggers warnings so this is sometimes why you see different colour warnings issued for Northern Ireland compared to the Republic of Ireland as they are two different weather agencies.
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The Status red weather warning was only issued at 6:10am this morning and is in place until 1am Sunday morning and the warning reads.
Regions and local authorities affected:
Wales
Blaenau Gwent
Bridgend
Caerphilly
Cardiff
Merthyr Tydfil
Monmouthshire
Neath Port Talbot
Rhondda Cynon Taf
Torfaen
Storm Dennis is expected to bring further heavy rain for a time on Sunday morning, increasing the likelihood of high impacts.
Prolonged, heavy rain will continue until mid-morning, easing slowly into the middle of the day. This rain will bring event totals to between 100 and 140mm over higher ground in south Wales.
What to expect
Danger to life from fast flowing or deep floodwater
Extensive flooding to homes and businesses is likely
Collapsed or damaged buildings or bridges
Road closures and bus and train service delays and cancellations
Dangerous driving conditions because of spray and flooded roads
Loss of power and other essential services, such as gas, water, mobile phone service
Communities could be completely cut off by floodwater, perhaps for several days
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Meanwhile for the rest of the UK amber and yellow warnings for wind and rain are in place today and will remain in place until Monday and further North over Scotland a Ice warning has also been issued this morning.
Back here at home a status Orange wind warning is in effect from 10am this morning for strong and severe damaging gusts for 9 counties up along the atlantic seaboard from Donegal to Cork with a status yellow wind warning issued elsewhere Click here for the latest weather warning for Ireland
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Elevated river levels
Currently river levels are elevated across the country, particularly in the midlands, west and south, so any heavy rainfall would cause issues
NDFEM request that all local authority Severe Weather Assessment Teams monitor weather conditions throughout the weekend and consider activating crisis management and Local Co-ordination arrangements, if required.
NDFEM will continue to monitor weather conditions throughout the weekend with Met Éireann and OPW. We would request that you would contact us should any significant flooding incidents occur in your area over the weekend.
Coastal Conditions
Coastal Flooding
We are entering into a period of transition between Spring (High) Tides and Neap (Low) Tides. This means there will not be a large variation between high and low tides. The combination of high seas and strong winds or stormy conditions, may increase the possibility of coastal flooding especially along western and southern coasts Saturday and Sunday coinciding with high tides.
OPW have issued a High Tide Advisory for the weekend.
A period of very high storm surge is associated with Storm Dennis which may result in sea levels approaching or exceeding Highest Astronomical Tide (HAT) in the coastal areas shown below from tomorrow afternoon, Saturday 15 until Monday morning 17 February 2020.
Whilst storm surge levels are currently relatively low in all coastal areas, they are predicted to increase significantly as follows, from tomorrow morning until Monday morning, in the coastal areas shown below:
1.00m at Lough Swilly
0.80m at Donegal Bay
0.70m at Sligo
0.65m at Killala
0.70m at Clew Bay
0.55m at Roundstone
0.80m at Galway Bay
0.55m at Shannon Estuary
0.70m at Arklow
0.75m at Wicklow
0.80m at Dublin Bay
0.80m at Drogheda
0.80m at Dundalk Bay
As these forecasts of storm surge may change, OPW advise all local authorities to monitor surge and sea level forecasts closely throughout this notice period (from Saturday 15 to Monday 17 February).
Click on the tabs below to view the new forecasts available under the forecast section.
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