Storm Jonas: update for Wessex Area
Current status as of 13:00 on 26 January 2016
Heavy and persistent rain is forecast
The Met Office has issued yellow severe weather warnings for rain across the South West for today, Tuesday 26 January and tomorrow, Wednesday 27 January 2016 as Storm Jonas passes over the UK. The rain will be accompanied by gales with the risk of severe gales on exposed hills and coasts for a time.
Across our Wessex Area we are expecting persistent rainfall between Tuesday afternoon and early morning on Thursday. During this time we could see rainfall totals across Wessex of between 25 and 50 mm. High ground on Exmoor could see up to 60mm of rain. This may well lead to some localised flooding, although we do not anticipate flooding of any properties in the Somerset Levels and Moors.
What we are doing
Our incident rooms in Bridgwater and Blandford are now open and will stay open 24hours a day throughout this period of bad weather. We are continuing to monitor the weather forecast and the situation on the ground, including continual monitoring of river and groundwater levels. We will issue flood alerts and flood warnings as appropriate.
We are working with local authorities and other professional partners to brief them on the likely consequences of any possible flooding to help everyone plan for this and provide a joined up response.
We have over 50 members of staff out and about checking rivers and trash screens to clear any blockages and we will be operating our flood risk management assets as necessary. We are also making sure staff will be available to support any incident as it develops.
If you are concerned please:
•Call Floodline on 0345 988 1188 for updates on flooding, to sign up for free flood warnings or to report flooding.
•Sign up for flood warnings at www.gov.uk/sign-up-for-flood-w
•Visit the Environment Agency website www.gov.uk/environment-agency which contains information on current river levels and flooding
•Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/EnvAgencyS
•Visit our facebook page https://www.facebook.com/envir