Record number of flood warnings for Britain in winter 2024
June 24: Up to 40 flood warnings a day were issued on average in Britain in the first few months of 2024, the highest since records began, according to data obtained by Round Our Way.
The statistics obtained from the Environment Agency (EA) under the Freedom of Information Act, reveal that nearly 5,000 flood alerts were issued across Britain between January and April this year. Round Our Way have also collected testimony from people impacted by floods across the UK.
The story was used by Press Association and featured in The Guardian, the Yorkshire Post, The Daily Mirror, The Daily Express, The Independent, the Daily Star, The Herald, The Scotsman and many more.
The figures are part of a long term trend since 2006 of increased flood safety warnings being issued to the public by the EA. The figures relate to warnings issued about river and sea flooding and not surface water flooding, which is a significant problem in its own right.
Due to climate change, the UK is experiencing more intense rainfall. Warmer skies over Britain are holding more moisture, leading to both greater levels of rain and more sudden heavy downpours that can overwhelm drainage systems. Recent research from World Weather Attribution (WWA) found that human-caused climate change made the UK’s autumn and winter storm rainfall about 20% heavier.
The latest flood alerts data from winter 2024, collected and analysed by Round Our Way show that in:
Great Britain
A record number of flood alerts and warnings were issued by environment agencies between January and April. Across England, Scotland and Wales 4,858 flood alerts and warnings were issued – the highest on record.
England
England recorded the highest number of alerts in 19 years (since current records began in 2006) with 3,986 (2,561 alerts, 1,423 warnings and two severe warnings) issued by the Environment Agency (EA) during the four month period, a 148% increase or 2.5 times higher, year on year.
The number of flood alerts/warnings issued during the first four months of 2024 was 8.6 times greater than during the same period in 2006.
On average 1,641 flood alerts/warnings are issued each year between January and April in England.
Between January 2006 and April 2024 68,505 alerts/warnings have been issued by the EA – 50,235 alerts, 17,789 warnings and 481 severe warnings.
Scotland
In Scotland 389 flood alerts/warnings were issued by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) during the first four months of 2024 – 111 alerts and 278 warnings, a 95% increase year on year.
On average 223 alerts/warnings are issued each year between January and April in Scotland.
Between December 2015 and April 2024 SEPA has issued 5,064 flood alerts/warnings – 2,073 alerts, 2,965 warnings and 26 severe warnings.
Wales
In Wales 483 flood alerts/warnings were issued by Natural Resources Wales (NRW) between January and April – 379 alerts, 103 warnings and one severe warning. This is a 15.5 % increase in comparison to the year before.
On average 254 alerts/warnings are issued each year between January and April in Wales.
Between February 2006 and April 2024 NRW has issued 11,056 alerts/warnings – 8,676 alerts, 2,355 warnings and 25 severe warnings.
Last year (2023) the three nations recorded the greatest annual total number of alerts and warnings since current records with 7,512, then by 2020 with 7,464.
The State of the UK Climate 2022 report found that the decade 2011-2020 was 9% wetter than the decades between 1961-1990. This impact is more stark in the winter – for the recent period 2013–2022, UK winters were 10% wetter than 1991–2020 and 25% wetter than 1961–1990.
The Met Office notes that Scotland has experienced the greatest increase in rainfall.
From the start of the observational record in 1862, six of the 10 wettest years across the UK have occurred since 1998. Analysis by the Met Office Hadley Centre shows heavy rainfall events in the UK (where over 50mm of rain falls) have increased in frequency by 60% over the last century, and are projected to increase further.
Roger Harding, Director of Round Our Way, a not-for-profit organisation supporting people impacted by climate change in the UK, said:
“In the past flooding was a rarity for most of us. We were more likely to see it on the TV than with our own eyes, but recently things have changed. Barely a winter week seems to pass without a weather warning being issued and the floods that come in their wake.
“These figures back up what many of us are thinking, as climate change sets in, more floods are happening. The first four months of this year saw the highest number of flood warnings since records began.
“Climate change and the floods that come with it are leaving families more and more exposed. Politicians need to invest in clean energy so we can cut fossil fuels and protect our families from this getting worse.”
Wiltshire childminder faced £20,000 bill after three floods in 2024
Childminder Pauline Crane, 56, of Stockley, Wiltshire said she was left “broken mentally" after her village home and workplace were flooded three times in three months this year by surface water.
She said: “It’s so horrible. Every time there’s heavy rain I can’t sleep, I never thought rain would make me feel like this.”
Mrs Crane, who has run a childminding business for almost ten years, employing four staff, said: “I am now trying to keep my business and my sanity going.
The first flood arrived in early January after Storm Henk. “The water was everywhere, in lots of houses, in fields and on the roads,” she said.
Mrs Crane’s garden was under water, which also entered the downstairs of her 100-year-old terraced home, where babies crawl and children play.
Flooring, kitchen kickboards and rugs needed replacing after three inches of water from nearby farmers’ fields flowed in.
An admin error meant Pauline had unintentionally cancelled her insurance so she had to deal with all the costs incurred from her savings, including continuing to pay staff and refunding parents for temporarily being unable to do her job
She contacted DEFRA “but it couldn’t do anything”, she said.
“I also contacted Floodline [the Environment Agency’s telephone helpline], they couldn’t do anything as the water was not coming from a river,” she added.
The local council gave her a £500 flood relief grant and the parish council spent £1,500 on 'gel sacks' which help soak up flood water.
A second flood hit in early March and could have been avoided, the mum-of-three believes, if more field ditches had been dug nearby after the initial flood.
She said: “It was raining again and the water couldn’t drain away. It was worse than the first time, more came into my home. I was awake until 2am and there was no water then, but we know it hit before 4.30am, we found out then as the dog was barking, the water had gone into his crate in the living room.”
Mrs Crane had to replace flooring again and rip out skirting boards. Some of her carpet and a sofa were ruined, as were children’s play equipment and toys.
She said: “I had a big bag of children’s library books, they were all saturated. I cried in the library when I returned them.”
Her landlord installed flood defence doors but they and the gel sacks and sandbags didn’t stop water entering for the third time during another period of heavy rain in late March.
She said: “We were going on holiday and my husband woke at 4.45am, we were due to leave at 6.30am. But there was water in the house, if he had gotten up later there would have been more, but he put out more sandbags and began mopping up.”
Instead of them both cancelling their trip, they decided Pauline would still go away. “I felt emotionally and financially broken. I don’t feel safe in my home anymore, it’s soul destroying. I can’t live under this stress and pressure. I cried for much of the holiday.”
The three floods have cost her around £20,000. “There is minimal help available,” she said. Now she is extremely anxious whenever it rains - “I feel I have PTSD” - waiting for the next time.
“The wettest I can remember”
John Bracken, 76, has run a pest control business in Lancashire for 30 years and is also head flood warden for the village of Churchtown, one of the first places in Britain to get a community-led flood defence scheme in the wake of floods in 2015 and 2016.
He said: “The last 12 months have been worse than ever, the wettest I can remember. We get a lot of warnings, we’ve had probably at least six this year, including last week.”
Locals feel better protected since the £100,000 village flood defence scheme opened in 2019, he added. The ex-farmer represents Churchtown Flood Action Group at meetings with the EA and local councils and believes such groups are vital for communities at risk.
He said: “The main thing is to form a flood group because as a sole person shouting goes nowhere, you need a group. There is power in numbers.”
Mr Bracken added that everyone who is registered with the EA gets a flood warning via an automated phone call. He monitors the river height via his mobile phone, alerts other flood wardens and makes telephone calls and house visits where necessary to reassure people and check they are safe.
90-year-old woman yet to return home seven months after Storm Babet
Caroline Lloyd, 62, of Scamblesby, near Horncastle, Lincolnshire has been looking after her 90-year-old mother, Barbara, for more than seven months after her home flooded when Storm Babet hit.
Barbara’s bungalow in Horncastle is in an area where an £8 million flood scheme was completed in 2017.
Caroline said: “My mum and I both get flood alerts fairly regularly, we had signed up for them. On the day of the bad flood we had an alert to take immediate action, but I couldn't get to her as the road by me had become a river, water was pouring off the fields.”
With river water seeping into her mother’s home during the storm, Caroline became increasingly concerned.
She said: “I was worried about her, and how high she would have to get, and being in a bungalow. She was desperately trying to lift electrical cables and extension leads away from the water,” she said. The 90-year-old had to be rescued by police and the fire brigade and has been with her daughter ever since.”
The EA has acknowledged that flood infrastructure in the area wasn’t designed with the floods caused by Storm Babet in mind which resulted in around 200 homes being flooded.
Caroline added: “We are not going to be able to protect all properties, so must dramatically sort out climate change, or alter the whole infrastructure of how we live. We have to do something, we are sleepwalking.”
