Football matches called off after heavy rain hits UK
Heavy rain across parts of the UK has lead to six football matches being cancelled, train delays and flooded roads.
The Met Office said much of northern England and the east Midlands were struck by 25 to 60mm of rain in a 30-hour period leading into Saturday.
The highest rainfall total of 122 mm was recorded at Libanus in South Wales, while Pershore College near Worcester was hit by 50mm – the most for the Midlands.
There has been a lot of #rain for parts of the UK over the past 30 hours, with #Libanus in #Wales recording 121.6mm 🌧️🌧️ pic.twitter.com/E7zjMxrekR
— Met Office (@metoffice) October 26, 2019
Earlier on Saturday, Championship side Nottingham Forest announced that the club’s match against Reading was postponed after heavy rain overnight left large areas of the pitch “unplayable”.
In League One, the game between Tranmere Rovers and Doncaster was called off due to a waterlogged pitch as was Lincoln’s home match against Bolton Wanderers.
League Two matches between Forest Green and Crewe Alexandra, Macclesfield and Bradford and Grimsby and Cheltenham Town were also postponed.
This afternoon's match between #NFFC and @ReadingFC has been postponed
Heavy rain overnight has left large areas of the pitch in an unplayable condition and the referee has taken the decision to call the game off.
A re-arranged date will be confirmed in due course. pic.twitter.com/jgG8KrLg24
— Nottingham Forest FC (@NFFC) October 26, 2019
A Met Office amber weather warning for rain covering South Wales expired at 11am on Saturday, while yellow warnings over the rest of Wales, northern England, the Midlands and south west England ended at 3pm.
On Twitter, police in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, shared a video of a flood road and encouraged people to stay indoors and avoid the “horrendous” conditions on the roads.
Elsewhere, people tweeted footage of cars ploughing through flooded roads in Bramhall in Greater Manchester and floodwater Albrighton in Shropshire.
The Ford at #Pontesbury…..stay clear ….. that has some current to it 🌊 pic.twitter.com/xMxgG6p6XV
— Shrewsbury Police (@ShrewsburyCops) October 26, 2019
The railway line at Beeston Castle in Cheshire was also flooded on Saturday morning, causing delays to passengers travelling between Crewe and Chester.
The Matlock Bath Illuminations in Derbyshire were cancelled because flood levels were deemed “too dangerous” to allow for boats to parade on the river.
As of 6pm on Saturday, the Environment Agency had issued 79 flood warnings advising people to take immediate action due to flooding, that covered a large swathe of central England.
Our officers are out and about across the #Midlands working to reduce the impact of #flooding like here at Woodborough in #Notts please check your #flood risk and do not try to drive through flood water https://t.co/4HSc5MbL20pic.twitter.com/yOrQjeM8pW
— Env Agency Midlands (@EnvAgencyMids) October 26, 2019
A further 163 flood alerts, urging the public to prepare for possible flooding, were also put out.
Met Office meteorologist Greg Dewhurst said weather conditions were set to improve as an area of high pressure established itself in the coming days.
This would bring sunny days with cold and frosty nights for Sunday through to Tuesday, he said.
Mr Dewhurst added: “Good news for those who don’t want any more rain.”