Flood warnings hit a record high in England during 2024
17 January 2025
Flood warnings hit a record high in England during 2024 increasing by a third to their highest level since records began.
The figures, highlighted by Round Our Way, are based on latest data from the Environment Agency (EA) warnings system which alerts the public to flooding risks from rivers and the sea and, for a limited number of locations, for groundwater flooding.
The story was featured in The Express.
In total 72,000 alerts and warnings have been issued since 2006. The UK saw multiple climate impacts across 2024 including many floods, impacting people up and down the country. Recent analysis from World Weather Attribution found that Autumn and winter storm rainfall in 2023/24 in the UK and Ireland was made about 20% heavier by human-caused climate change.
The Met Office UK State of the Climate Report found that 2023 was the seventh wettest year on record since 1836. And a recently published Met Office review noted that the 2023/2024 storm season was a particularly busy one, culminating in Storm Lilian in August 2024, the first time ‘L’ had been reached in a single storm season since the naming system began in 2015. The floods contributed to the second worst harvest ever in the UK in 2024.
The data shows:
- The number of flood alerts and warnings issued by the Environment Agency in England jumped by almost a third (32.4%) between 2023 and 2024. The number of alerts/warnings issued in 2024 were the highest since current records began in 2006.
- In total there were 7,625 flood alerts/warnings in England in 2024 – 5,110 alerts, 2,510 warnings and five severe warnings. This is the equivalent of 21 per day or 147 a week.
- 720 flood alerts and warnings were issued last month (December 2024) – of which 149 were issued on New Year’s Eve.
- The previous year (2023), 5,760 alerts/warnings were issued – 4,065 alerts, 1,690 warnings and five severe flood warnings.
- More than 72,000 flood alerts and warnings have been issued across England since records began – 52,784 alerts (including flood watch), 18,876 warnings and 484 severe warnings.
- 2015 saw the greatest number of severe flood warnings when 101 were issued
Meteorologist, Gemma Plumb, UK Weather and Climate Lead at Weather Change said:
“Climate change is making our weather more extreme and this is having a real impact on people’s lives. Here in the UK we have already seen climate change bring more intense rainfall and this brings the greater risk of flooding. We are now seeing that rainfall associated with autumn and winter storms in the UK is becoming more intense and more likely.”
Sofie Jenkinson, Co-Director of Round Our Way, said:
“People up and down the country are having to deal with the consequences of flooding in their homes, their businesses and important local services due to the increased rain we are seeing in the UK as a consequence of climate change. We need to see increased preparedness across the UK for extreme weather events including crucial maintenance of the drain network but we also need urgent action to tackle the causes of increased heavy rain, which will continue to wreak havoc in our communities.”
Topics: Floods