Summer deluge causes chaos in Northern Ireland by Steph Ball
Northern Ireland has been left cleaning up today after almost a month’s rain fell within 24 hours, sparking widespread floods across the country.
Torrential downpours during Saturday left homes inundated, turning roads into rivers and leading to mudslides. Many roads became impassable and emergency services were stretched to the limit as calls flooded in.
The wet weather was attributed to an area of low pressure lying off the west coast of Ireland which remained slow moving during Friday and Saturday. Weather fronts lay straddled across Northern Ireland and also parts of southern Ireland, bringing a spell of very heavy and prolonged rainfall.
In the 24 hours from 2100 GMT Friday to 2100 GMT Saturday, as much as 50mm (2 inches) of rain fell quite widely across Northern Ireland. In Portglenone though, 73.2mm of rain fell (2.88 inches). The average monthly rainfall for August across Northern Ireland is around 75mm (3 inches).
The recent floods come in a week which has already seen wet weather causing flooding across Northern Ireland and other parts of the UK. A break in the wet weather today has helped clean up operations to commence, however the Met Office is forecasting further heavy rain to arrive during Monday.
