British holidaymakers have been hit with severe delays and disruptions to the start of the summer holiday season as torrential rain across the weekend caused flooding, transport chaos and the closure of schools and shopping centres.
Across the UK, motorways and A-roads came to a standstill, with some even being forced to close for a few hours inlcuding the M4, a favourite route for travellers from London heading for Wales , Devon and Cornwall .
Experts say the bad weather was the result of a "very active" low pressure system that had drifted north from France , dumping rain on London and the South East before working its way northwards over Oxfordshire and the Midlands – two of the worst hit areas.
Berkshire was also badly hit forcing school closures in Windsor and homes to be evacuated in Maidenhead, while many roads in Hampshire were impassable.
The flooding caused eight rail companies to stop their services, with links between the capital and the south-west affected the most. The London Underground also closed 15 stations and the Circle Line was suspended.
The Environment Agency issued 18 flood warnings over the weekend and opened a national incident room in Bristol to co-ordinate relief efforts. The Agency stated that unfortunbatley it could not predict the extent of flooding that might occur from water draining off the land into streams and rivers and added that extreme weather is likely to become the norm in the future.
Experts believe that the erratic weather the UK has witnessed since the turn of the year is firm evidence of global warming.
The increase in floods is also changing homebuyers’ attitudes to property in low-lying areas. Planning authorities are now starting to take a more critical view of developments that increase the risk of flooding by building on fields.
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