Flood alerts across northern England as wet weather continues

Flood alerts have been issued across northern England on Sunday, as heavy rain continues to fall over the region.

Twelve local areas in Merseyside, Lancashire, Greater Manchester and Yorkshire have all received alerts, meaning flooding is possible, as well as isolated alerts in Leicestershire and Middlesbrough.

The Met Office said a large band of rain would sit across the central swathe of the UK, particularly northern England and Wales, for much of the day.

A spokesperson for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said “minor surface water flooding impacts” were possible in those areas, but that the overall flood risk for England and Wales is “very low” for the next five days.

Major sporting events in north-west England including the fourth Ashes Test at Old Trafford and the Open Championship at Hoylake have already been affected by showers.

Bluedot Festival, taking place over the weekend at Jodrell Bank in Cheshire and headlined by Grace Jones, announced it was unable to accommodate Sunday day ticket holders, as arena conditions allowed the programme to go ahead “but only for people already here”.

Tramlines, another festival being held in Sheffield, said the opening of its final day was delayed because “essential work” was needed, with Kaiser Chiefs among bands still due to perform.

Marco Petagna, a meteorologist at the Met Office, said: “Certainly localised flooding is quite possible. The rain warning we have out now until midnight certainly suggests the potential for standing water on the roads, so journey times could be impacted, and there could be some disruption for local bus and train services.”

He added more wet and windy weather was due to arrive from the west in the middle of next week, with the outlook “staying unsettled” and thunderstorms and further flood risk possible.

The forecaster said the UK was on track to have its dullest July on record, with noticeably fewer amounts of sunshine than average over the month.