(Bloomberg) -- The UK government has urged people to prepare for flooding this winter after an unusually wet September and the wettest 18 months on record through February.
The warning marks ‘flood action week’ which starts Monday and coincides with the anniversary of last year’s Storm Babet, which caused damage across the country.
“Only last month, heavy rainfall led to the first major incident of the season with almost a thousand properties flooded,” The Environment Agency said in a statement. “It followed the wettest 18 months on record in England up to February 2024.”
While the effects of the La Niña weather phenomenon are likely to develop over the coming weeks and expected to bring colder and drier weather to the UK, even a “normal” winter could lead to flooding in some areas, Will Lang, head of situational awareness at the Met Office, said in a recent briefing.
“Climate change means extreme weather events are happening more frequently,” according to Caroline Douglass, the Environment Agency’s executive director of flood and coastal risk management. “That is why it is essential we all do our part by checking our flood risk.”
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