UK Floods: Wet Weather And Storms To Last Until The New Year (PICTURES)

Soggy End For 2012 As Saturated South West Due For Another Battering

A wet and stormy weekend is set to usher in a soggy finish to one of the wettest years in British history, with no respite expected for the saturated south west.

More heavy downpours will continue on Thursday and Friday as fresh bands of rain sweep east, followed by a New Year storm this weekend.

Sleet and snow will add to the meteorological misery, expected to fall across the north of England and southern Scotland on Thursday with Perth also spattered with the white stuff.

It may be the most wonderful time of the year but the weather has been rubbish

Although sunshine will break through at the weekend, intermittent stormy showers will plague Britain until the New Year.

The south-west which has seen the worst of the flooding in recent days and is still subject to a Met Office severe weather warning.

The British Geological Survey has an amber landslide warning in place for the region, urging holiday walkers to take care along coastal routes because of fears of land instability and rock fall.

A man takes a photo of a flooded Washlands Park in Burton On Trent, Staffordshire

A storm brewing in the Atlantic could bring up to 50mm of rain and 90mph winds in some areas this weekend.

A forecaster for MeteoGroup, the weather division of the Press Association said: "News bands of rain will sweep across Britain from west to east today, tomorrow and Saturday bringing some heavy showers.

"There will be some sunshine and clearer skies on Saturday but it will be a stormy weekend and noticeably wet and windy.

"Winds will reach up to 50 mph in the north and west of the UK, and up to 90mph along the west coast of Scotland."

She added that some areas of the UK have had 'way above' their average annual rainfall this year with the south west hit particularly badly.

"It's going to be a wet and stormy end to the year," she added.

Their forecast is perhaps particularly pertinent as experts announced that the washed-out summer turned 2012 into the year of the slug, which thrived while much of the UK's wildlife struggled in the unsettled weather.

The wet weather allowed some creatures, such as slugs, to thrive

The Environment Agency has issued 109 flood warnings and 213 less serious flood alerts for the UK as the risk of flooding continues.

However, the agency has removed 76 flood warnings and alerts in the last 24 hours.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency has one flood alert in place around the Scottish Borders.

Rail and road networks were badly hit in the days leading up to Christmas, with a number of key routes struck by weather-related delays and National Rail warned of further disruption in the south-west today.

First Great Western trains today told people not to attempt travel today.

Hundreds of homes have flooded in the past week, with the worst-affected areas in south-west England and along the south coast from Cornwall to Kent, along with Wales and northern Scotland.

The sodden Christmas comes towards the end of what is expected to be one of the wettest years in Britain since records began.

The UK's average rainfall in 2012, excluding December, was 1,202mm - placing it 13th in the list of wettest years since records began in 1910.

The year 2000 remains the UK's wettest year, with an average rainfall of 1,337.3mm.

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