Vacationers are facing brand-new travel nightmares as thunderstorms and severe rain forced the cancellation of dozens of flights and left thousands of travellers stuck at Gatwick Airport for hours.
The airport has cancelled 45 planes that were due to arrive, while at least 24 flights leaving the airport have been delayed, with many more stating “enquire airline,” adding to the stress that travellers are already experiencing.
Numerous disgruntled travellers vented on Twitter about the latest terrible setback to their vacation plans, while others said that the delays would cause them to miss transfers and connecting flights.
Many London-bound travellers indicate that their flights on easyJet, Wizz Air, and British Airways were abruptly cancelled, while others say they were kept waiting in the airport for hours without any information.
According to Gatwick, a “high volume disruption” brought on by weather issues throughout the continent had a “ongoing impact” throughout the day.
Today’s violent thunderstorms and downpours in the south east of England triggered flooding at London Victoria and other stations, prompting warnings of a “risk to life” from swiftly moving floodwater.
London commuters struggled to make it home after the torrential rains that greatly affected public transportation by shutting tube stations and flooding portions of the M25 and A406.
The Met Office has issued yellow and amber warnings for a sizable portion of England and Wales. Roads are already flooded, drains are overflowing, and people are urgently attempting to hold back floods as a result of torrential rains that have hit large portions of the nation.
When Twitter user Mahadi learned that her three-hour flight had been cancelled, she tweeted: “Can you send buses to get us off this b****y aircraft!” We are now seated. The wait time is an unknown quantity, according to the personnel. AFTER FOUR HOURS, WE ARE STILL HERE.
I’m presently waiting to depart from Sicily for Gatwick back home, one lady told MailOnline. Already, we are more than two hours late. According to air traffic control at Gatwick, the aircraft is not permitted to take off, we have been informed.
“Due to poor weather at Gatwick, the pilot has been instructed to remain there for at least two hours.”
We’ve been on the aircraft at Palermo Airport for more than three hours, and they just informed us that they are cancelling our trip right now due to terrible weather at London Gatwick, Mark Thewlis tweeted.
The Met Office issued an amber notice for thunderstorms today that included all of Kent, London, Brighton, and all of England from Chichester to Ipswich. In less than an hour, there may be up to 30-50mm (one to two inches) of rain in the area, resulting in “flooding and disruption.”
The South East is forecast to get further heavy rainfall in the coming hours, and an amber thunderstorm warning is in effect until 10 p.m. in London.
Earl’s Court, Loughton, and Turnpike Lane subterranean stations are among those that are now closed as a result of flooding. Tottenham Hale and Victoria are partially closed, and there is no District or Circle line service on the London Overground.
The Environment Agency advised against driving through floodwater, stating that a vehicle may float in “only 30 cm” of rushing water and that the water is often deeper than it seems to be.
According to the BBC, Holbeach in Lincolnshire got 146.2 mm of rain in the 24 hours leading up to 9 a.m. today, accounting for 38% of the region’s annual rainfall.
Following the closure of one of the busiest major lines by flooding this morning, train services in East Anglia have been cancelled, impacting thousands of travellers.
According to Greater Anglia, services on the congested London to Ipswich and Norwich route will be cancelled or rescheduled owing to the severe rain, and the disruption will continue until further notice.
Trains cannot travel between these stations, according to Network Rail, due to water at a level crossing. The organisation tweeted this afternoon that trains are moving more slowly in Kent and East Sussex as a result of its weather alarms going off there.
The whole south of England is under a yellow weather alert, and it extends as far as Leicester and Cardiff, where floods and transport mayhem are also quite possible.
After the A&E department’s facility flooded, a hospital even advised patients to stay away from it.
Heavy downpours, according to Bassetlaw Hospital in Worksop, Nottinghamshire, “allowed water to seep into a few portions of the structure.”
In a Facebook post, the hospital claimed that staff members were “hard at work” resolving the issue.
Please be aware that the hospital staff continues to request that residents of Worksop only go to the emergency room at Bassetlaw Hospital if their needs are urgent or life-threatening.
“Water was able to seep into a few areas of the building due to yesterday’s rain, which colleagues are working hard to remedy — work we expect to conclude shortly.”
With spectacular images of heavy downpours and flash floods on highways in Newquay, Cornwall, Bishop’s Tawton, Devon, and Haywards Heath, West Sussex, portions of Cornwall and Devon have been particularly severely struck in the South West.
In Winchester, workmen were spotted yesterday removing a drain grid on a flooded road, while locals in Dorset tried to divert flash floodwater away from a restaurant in West Bay using buckets and other homemade containers.
Wales’ Port Talbot saw street flooding, while Loughborough’s Morrisons parking lot experienced flooding.
A Swansea Waterstones store experienced flooding, prompting volunteers to race to prevent the destruction of volumes. When storms slammed the shop in a severe rain, the bookshelves were drenched.
The rain was captured on camera by staff when the shelves were empty and there were hundreds of soaked books on the floor.
With deepest apologies, we are currently closed, they said on Twitter.
Lots of customers rushed over to help us preserve the books, but we had to decline their assistance due to safety concerns. Thank you, however; normal business will hopefully resume shortly.
However, scientists have cautioned that it will take “weeks” of heavy rain for certain areas of the nation to recover from the driest July on record and the driest half of the year since 1976 since the ground would find it difficult to absorb the water and surface run-off leads to floods.
This implies that on the “tinderbox dry” terrain that Britain has been left with, wildfires are still a danger.
Following the South West, southern, and central regions of England, as well as the East of England last week, authorities declared Yorkshire to be in a state of drought on Tuesday.
Firefighters from Buckley Hill and Kirkby were summoned at 9.35 p.m. to reports of a “big blaze” in a field near Buckley Hill Road in Bootle, Merseyside. According to the Liverpool Echo, witnesses were concerned about the Shy Lowen Horse and Pony Sanctuary.
Following overnight severe rain, Scotland experienced travel disruptions on its roads and rail networks, including flooding at Perth station.
After a mudslide on Monday night, the A358 in Combe Florey, Somerset, which is located between Minehead and Taunton, was still blocked yesterday afternoon. More than 100 tonnes of mud and sliding potatoes from surrounding farms were retrieved by workers.
The following is from the Met Office’s warning: “Thunderstorms and regions of heavy rain will develop relatively extensively on Wednesday throughout central, southern and eastern sections of England and southeast Wales, although some locations will avoid them.”
20 to 30 millimetres of rain may fall in an hour, but in spots where the thundery rain becomes slow-moving, 60 millimetres may fall in less than three hours.
The Environment Agency has issued 29 flood advisories by Tuesday night. “A few locations might get more rainfall than this yet, while hail and lightning may be additional concerns.”
According to the Met Office, the wettest places on Tuesday were Spadeadam in Cumbria (25.4mm) and Trengwainton House in Cornwall (18.4mm).
In videos and images posted to social media, communities in southern England and Wales, including Newquay in Cornwall, Bishop’s Tawton in Devon, Haywards Heath in West Sussex, Port Talbot in south-west Wales, and Bridport in Dorset, were seen to be experiencing heavy rain and flooding.
As heavy rain and thunderstorms lash parts of the nation today, creating mudslides while soaking train lines and streets, Britons have been advised to pack a “grab bag” of supplies in case of floods.
As the warmth comes to an end with a bang with up to two inches of rain dropping in three hours today, firefighters advised residents to prepare a flood kit, warning that those who live in basement apartments or low-lying houses are especially at danger.
According to the National Flood Forum, a flooding “grab bag” should include any medications or prescription forms, insurance and other critical paperwork, cell phones and chargers, emergency cash and credit cards, and mobile devices.
The London Fire Brigade advised people to “use sandbags to limit the water flow and move belongings to a higher level” and to “be prepared and know what to do should a flood occur.” People who live in “low-lying houses” should make sure their valuables are “ready to move” or “on a higher level of your property,” according to the Met Office.
The Environment Agency estimates that 5.2 million households in England, or one in every six residences, are at danger of flooding, therefore the advice will be relevant to millions of individuals. There are 2.4 million people who are at risk from rivers and the sea, 1 million of whom are also vulnerable to surface water flooding, and another 2.8 million people who are only at risk from surface water.
I’ve never seen rain like this, a Twitter user who shared a video of floodwater in Newquay wrote. Our street is inundating Newquay.
Despite recent flood work by the @EnvAgency, a second Twitter user in Bishop’s Tawton, north Devon, wrote: “(F)lash flooding causing use of sandbags to prevent water in house, urgent need for solutions.”
On Tuesday, ScotRail slowed down several of its services, while Network Rail in Perth reported dealing with water at the station.
Since Wednesday is the fourth consecutive day that thunderstorm warnings have been issued in the UK, residents of counties like Sussex, Kent, and Hampshire should prepare for potential torrential downpours.
According to Simon Partridge of the Met Office, “there could be some high totals (of rainfall), particularly if you see some heavy thunderstorms come in one after another.”
People in the north should be able to take advantage of a day that feels fresher, is a bit cooler, is mostly dry, and has some sunny patches.
The ground has been extremely dry due to the heat and prolonged lack of rain, according to Mr. Partridge. When it has rained, the ground has been completely dry and baked dry, much like concrete.
It is moving off more quickly than in the past. It is much simpler for the earth to absorb the rain that falls on it if there is some moisture there. We most likely have a higher run-off rate than usual for the rainfall.
“There has been so little water that has gone into the ground that it almost seems like all the fields have been tarmacked,” a farmer said.
According to Stephen Dixon, a spokesman for the Met Office, up to 50mm of rain could fall in some areas of the nation within the next three hours. It is vital to remember that thunderstorms might appear anywhere within the warning region. However, some places can completely miss the rain.
According to Mr. Dixon, this chance of thunderstorms will last all day Wednesday before moving to southern parts of the UK.
“The primary concern that we are looking at is for the South East early on Thursday morning.” As the day progresses, the danger then diminishes.
The National Flood Forum charity also issued a warning, noting that despite flooding having become a common occurrence in the nation, the UK is still just “reacting and not proactive” when it comes to flood risk.
The charity’s flood recovery expert, Heather Shepherd, said: “Flooding has clearly risen” in an interview with LBC’s Nick Ferrari. Now, we recognise it as an annual trend.
“I still believe that we are largely reactive rather than proactive. When flodding isn’t making headlines, we have a tendency to become a little too relaxed.
A lot of [building] is on areas where water once had space but no longer does, according to Miss Shepherd, who also claimed that “building like mad everywhere” was raising the risk of floods. Our drainage infrastructure is overburdened.
In the meanwhile, Lake Windermere in Cumbria has been advised against swimming due to a possibly poisonous algae that has grown on its surface.
Although the heatwave officially ended on Tuesday after eight days, most of the UK is still experiencing very warm temperatures, with highs of 22C (71.6F) yesterday in London, Brighton, and Exeter, 25C (77F) in the south on Thursday, and 23C (73.4F) on Friday.
“It is probable that everyone will feel fresher starting late Wednesday or early Thursday.”
Professor Hannah Cloke, a hydrology specialist at the University of Reading, issued a warning that the chance of “dangerous” floods was enhanced by the dry soil.
The earth is very dry, and when it is so dry, it behaves much like concrete, preventing water from penetrating and allowing it to drain out immediately. These floods can result in property damage to homes and businesses as well as transportation disruptions, but they can also be very dangerous if they are concentrated in one area.
‘If you get heavy rain in a city, the drainage system can cope up to a point,’ she said in reference to how it might affect cities like London. However, if the rain is exceptionally heavy, it can overwhelm the system because it cannot escape quickly enough.
Water tends to follow the shortest path, which is why surface area floods in cities are so dangerous. The Tube, underground parking, and other places are concerned because of this.
The hazards we already face in cities are exacerbated if we are in London and the parks are really dry because there is nowhere for the water to flow.
According to Professor Cloke, flooding often affects low spots on highways and beneath bridges in rural areas.
Also yesterday, Ofwat CEO David Black supported the water corporations’ goals, calling them “difficult but doable.”
When questioned whether the objectives established for leaks are hard enough, Mr. Black said, “Yes, we set challenging but doable standards for water businesses, leakage being one of them.”
‘So at the previous pricing review we challenged the industry to cut leakage by 16 per cent and the current information we have indicates that 13 out of 17 firms (are) on course to accomplish that in the first two years.’
I can point to other areas of the (targets) regime where fewer companies are succeeding, for instance on pollution incidence.
We have therefore established high standards, and at the most recent price review, four out of the seventeen companies appealed our decision. They believed the standard to be too strict, and one of their arguments was that the goals were too lofty.
Overall, the water supplier industry, according to Mr. Black, “has underperformed against the price review.”
“Where corporations fall short on leakage, they will pay fines on it,” he told the BBC. They might be outperforming the government in other places. However, overall, compared to the price review so far in the period, the sector has underperformed.
“The industry hasn’t succeeded in generating the – if you want – these normal rates of return,” Mr. Black said.
“We definitely agree that customers should receive better service and expect better service, and for that reason we have set performance targets that aim to consistently motivate companies to perform better,” he said.
‘There are certain firms like Thames Water who have been serial poor performers and we have taken action against them and other companies.’
Asked whether he feels there is nothing wrong with the system, Mr Black said: ‘No, I think that firms like Thames and Southern really need to lift their game. I find it quite worrying because when we witness bad performance, it throws a long shadow on other businesses that may be doing better in the industry.