The UK's Environment Agency (EA) has put 27 severe flood warnings in place, along with 90 warnings and 84 alerts, as the country continues to experience unprecedented flooding across northern England. The "severe" warning means there is a danger to life.
The EA's deputy chief executive David Rooke said Monday that there needs to be a "complete rethink" of the UK's flood defences, with improved warning systems and more resilient homes a necessity among "unknown extremes" of weather.
David Cameron is set to visit flood-hit regions during the course of Monday, where he will likely face questions around the government's funding of flood defences.
Powerful @yorkshirepost front page Comment piece as politicians urged to act on #floods crisis. #Yorkshire pic.twitter.com/dEc1rKMt89— John Meehan (@MeehanMedia) December 28, 2015
York, Manchester and Leeds have been badly affected by the floods and several rivers, including the Aire in Leeds, the Calder and the Ribble, have seen record levels over the past day, the BBC reports.
Around 500 properties in York have been directly affected but the River Ouse is thought to have stabilised. City of York Council spokesman Charlie Croft said "we are still in the middle of a major incident, though tentative positive news is that the river may now have stopped rising at this point." 1,000 properties in Leeds have been flooded.
North Yorkshire Fire & Rescue have said they have attended almost 200 incidents across the county, mostly flood related, since Boxing Day on Dec. 26. A number of roads in the area have been closed.
500 soldiers have already been deployed to help with another 1,000 reportedly on standby.
200 additional @BritishArmy personnel deployed on top of 300 already supporting with emergency #flood response pic.twitter.com/DfFANaQ8U5— Ministry of Defence (@DefenceHQ) December 27, 2015
The latest Met Office forecast for the UK is predicting a drier day Monday with outbreaks of rain later and heavy rain and gales spreading eastwards on Wednesday. They've issued a yellow warning for North East and North West England among other regions.
Morning all, for more detail on today's forecast please see https://t.co/PKluN5aCKi thanks. Dan pic.twitter.com/WFqVpZsZU2— Met Office (@metoffice) December 28, 2015
This was the view across the country on Sunday and Monday:
Mickletown, Yorkshire
Mickletown, looking east towards Ferrybridge. @WYP_LeedsOuterE #leedsfloods pic.twitter.com/gKhn8S8U3S— NPAS Carr Gate (@NPAS_CarrGate) December 27, 2015
Old Molton, North Yorkshire
Old Malton @NYPControlRoom #malton pic.twitter.com/L0Cx1tWf8v— NPAS Carr Gate (@NPAS_CarrGate) December 27, 2015
Leeds
Royal Armouries #leedsfloods @WYP_LeedsCity pic.twitter.com/stVjzEc3U7— NPAS Carr Gate (@NPAS_CarrGate) December 27, 2015
(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_GB/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));Always make the most out of a bad situation. #leedsfloods #kayakPosted by Josh Couchman on Saturday, 26 December 2015
York
Cawood, North Yorkshire
Tadcaster, North Yorkshire
The EA's flood warning site allows users to input their postcode to see the level of risk for their area.
How climate change may fit into this
The flooding resulted from the cumulative impacts of heavy rain that fell over Christmas combined with lingering moisture from record rains earlier in December. In particular, an intense Atlantic storm, named winter storm "Desmond," hit northern England, Scotland and Ireland in early December.
A new national 24-hour rainfall record was set on December 5 when 13.44 inches, or 341.4 millimeters, of rain fell at Honister Pass in Cumbria. The storm flooded more than 5,000 homes and left as many as 60,000 people without power.
A recent study from Climate Central, the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute and the University of Oxford found that global warming increased the likelihood of the heavy precipitation from winter storm Desmond. The study, which has been submitted to a scientific journal but has not yet undergone peer review, found that an event like that is now roughly 40% more likely due to climate change than it was in the past.
In general, warming air and sea temperatures have led to more intense precipitation extremes in many parts of the world, with a greater proportion of rain and snow falling in fewer heavy bursts rather than numerous light to moderate amounts.
December is on track to be the warmest such month on record in the UK, according to the Met Office.
Additional reporting by Andrew Freedman.