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Why the Somerset Levels flood — and what £50m will (and won’t) fix

The Somerset Levels flood because they are a low-lying former wetland, much of which sits at or below the level of the rivers and tides meant to drain it. In a wet winter, water arrives faster than the catchment can…
Posted on 17th June, 2026
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Living with Water: What the UK Can Learn from Venice’s Everyday Flooding

Flooding in the UK is still widely framed as an abnormal disruption — a storm, a breach, an exceptional failure. Media narratives emphasise “record-breaking” rainfall and “once in a generation” events. Yet official modelling tells a more structural story. The…
Posted on 23rd February, 2026
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Managed retreat from flood risk at Clydach Terrace

Sixteen flood-prone homes on Clydach Terrace in Ynysybwl, Rhondda Cynon Taf, are set to be purchased and demolished by the local authority, bringing an end to years of repeated flooding, fear and uncertainty for the people who live there. Publicly,…
Posted on 3rd February, 2026
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Construction Stage Flood Risk and the Lessons from Attleborough

Flood risk is most often scrutinised at the point a planning application is determined. Flood Risk Assessments are prepared, mitigation is proposed, and decisions are taken on the assumption that what has been assessed on paper is what will exist…
Posted on 13th January, 2026
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Flooding Across England and Wales Ahead of Christmas 2025

In the weeks leading up to Christmas 2025, large parts of England and Wales experienced prolonged and disruptive flooding. Rather than a single storm-driven incident, the period was marked by repeated rainfall, saturated ground conditions and flooding that often persisted…
Posted on 22nd December, 2025
, in NPPF 
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Resilience by Repetition: 25 Years on from the 2000 Severn Floods

When the River Severn burst its banks in the autumn of 2000, it wasn’t the first time Shrewsbury, Bewdley or Ironbridge had flooded — but it was the one that changed everything. Streets became rivers, businesses closed overnight, and entire…
Posted on 5th November, 2025
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York and the River Ouse Remember the Floods of 2000

In November 2000, the River Ouse rose higher than living memory. In a matter of hours, the postcard beauty of York’s riverside was replaced by a scene of eerie stillness: pub benches half-submerged, streetlamps reflected in brown floodwater, rescue boats…
Posted on 5th November, 2025
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Runways Underwater: The 2000 Crawley and Gatwick Floods

The final months of 2000 delivered what the Environment Agency later called “the wettest autumn in nearly 300 years”. Successive Atlantic depressions rolled in through October and November, dumping record-breaking rainfall across much of England and Wales. By early November,…
Posted on 4th November, 2025
, in SuDS 
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25 Years On: The Legacy of the Lewes Floods

This year marks 25 years since the historic Lewes floods. In the autumn of 2000, intense and prolonged rainfall overwhelmed the River Ouse, sending torrents of water through the heart of Lewes. Within hours, streets were submerged, homes and businesses…
Posted on 3rd November, 2025
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Boscastle 2004 Floods: Lessons for a Wetter Climate

On 16 August 2004, a torrent of water tore through the Cornish village of Boscastle. What began as a humid summer afternoon became one of the most dramatic and widely televised flood events in modern British history. Within hours, cars…
Posted on 16th August, 2024
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The Great Flood of 1968: causes, the towns it hit, and the risk today

In the middle of September 1968, much of South East England disappeared under water. Two days of near-constant rain, the worst of it on Sunday 15 September, turned quiet rivers into torrents and turned high streets into channels you could…
Posted on 14th September, 2023
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What Is a Weather Bomb? Explosive Cyclogenesis Explained

A weather bomb is the informal name for a storm whose central pressure drops by at least 24 millibars in 24 hours, a process meteorologists call explosive cyclogenesis. The result is a deep, fast-developing area of low pressure that brings…
Posted on 22nd January, 2018
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