Storm Christoph will bring heavy rain and floods to these UK areas this week

The Met Office has named Storm Christoph as the weather system bringing heavy downpours and disruption to the UK this week (Photo: Shutterstock)The Met Office has named Storm Christoph as the weather system bringing heavy downpours and disruption to the UK this week (Photo: Shutterstock)
The Met Office has named Storm Christoph as the weather system bringing heavy downpours and disruption to the UK this week (Photo: Shutterstock)

The Met Office has named Storm Christoph as the weather system bringing heavy downpours and disruption to the UK this week.

“Storm Christoph will bring multiple hazards to the UK this week, initially heavy rain,” the Met Office has announced.

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Persistent heavy rain is set to lead to significant accumulations, which could also lead to flooding in some areas.

Weather warnings in place

An amber weather warning for rain has been issued for parts of northern, central and eastern England.

Separate yellow warnings for rain are also in place, covering Northern Ireland, Wales, southern Scotland and the rest of England.

The amber warning area includes Leeds, Manchester, Sheffield, Wakefield, Lincoln, Nottingham, Leicester and Peterborough and is in place for 6am on Tuesday (19 Jan) until midday on Thursday (21 Jan).

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For areas covered by the amber warning, rainfall could reach up to 200mm in parts of the southern Pennines and northern Peak District, and 40-70mm could be seen more widely.

‘A real threat of flooding’

Chief Meteorologist Dan Suri explains that the heavy rain moving across the UK this week combined with snow melt from last week could cause floods to occur.

Mr Suri said: “Some locations could see over 100mm of rain falling through the course of just a couple of days with up to 200mm possible over higher ground.

“These amounts of rainfall along with snow melt present a real threat of flooding and people should keep a close eye on flood warnings from the Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales.”

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There will also be strong winds along the east coast for a time, as the system moves away into the North Sea on Wednesday night and Thursday morning.

Colder air coming southwards into the weather system will also bring the risk of further snow.

“Temperatures will gradually fall across the UK through the end of the week and into the weekend bringing a return to widespread overnight frosts,” Mr Suri adds.

The Met Office outlook for Wednesday to Friday forecasts, says it will remain “extremely unsettled with heavy rainfall, and the potential for some snowfall and strong winds across southern and more especially central areas. Much colder in the north with wintry showers.”

What will the weather be like this weekend?

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Although Friday (22 Jan) will be drier with more sunshine, the delayed response of some river systems means there is still a risk of flooding in some areas, explains the Met Office.

Into the weekend, the feed of cold air from the north west is also likely to continue, with further wintry showers into the northwest.