Suffolk hit by half a month's rain

SUFFOLK has already had almost half the average rainfall for July - in the first three days of the month!

Almost a million tonnes of water fell on Ipswich during yesterday's storms which washed out many events and left superstar Rod Stewart singing in the rain.

And other parts of the county received even heavier rain as the heavens opened.

Evening Star weatherman Ken Blowers said 0.83 inches of rain fell in his garden in east Ipswich yesterday.

He said: “Ipswich is about 10,000 acres and an inch of rain falling on the town represents a million tonnes of water so we weren't far short of that.

“We had nearly 0.3 of an inch on Monday, so over those two days Ipswich got 1.11 inches of rain and the average for July is 2.25 inches so we're about half way there after just three days of the month.”

Elsewhere in Suffolk amateur meterologists recorded even more severe rainfall - an inch and a quarter of rain fell in an hour at Wickham Market, leading to flash floods on the A12.

The good news for the area is that although the rain has been very heavy, Suffolk's rivers are currently coping and there is no threat of serious flooding.

Roads were blocked by flash flooding at the height of yesterday's storms, but that was a drainage issue as water rushed off fields and down roads.

However they cleared reasonably quickly, and no homes were flooded by rivers bursting their banks as has happened in Yorkshire and the midlands.

The Environment Agency has not put any Suffolk rivers on flood alert.

David Kemp, leader of the flood incident management team with the agency, said: “We are monitoring the river levels, watching the water, checking the weather forecast so we can issue the appropriate warnings.

“We're charged with monitoring all the major rivers in Suffolk and after the recent rainfall we know the rivers can react extremely quickly. However we haven't yet reached the flood-watch levels.”