Millions of people have been warned about the risk of being flooded as heavy rain is set to batter Britain all weekend – just as a crucial climate summit gets under way.
As the eyes of the world turn to the UK for the start of United Nations’ Cop26 meeting on Sunday, forecasters have issued several weather warnings.
After downpours throughout the day on Friday, more heavy rain is expected into Saturday, falling on already saturated ground in some parts.
A yellow weather warning is in place for Wales, the south west and southern Scotland – including Glasgow, where the summit is taking place.
By late Friday, the Environment Agency had issued six flood warnings and 47 flood alerts – covering parts of the north, south west and southern England.
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) said 11 flood alerts and 11 flood warnings were in place, mainly centred on the Borders region.
Localised floods hit Cumbria and southern Scotland on Friday, washing away two bridges and flooding 40 properties.
Homes had to be evacuated and roads and rail transport were disrupted following very heavy downpours on Thursday and into Friday.
New flood defences installed in areas such as Cokermouth are thought to have protected more than a thousand homes from flooding across Cumbria, the Environment Agency said.
But some residents reported sewage ‘bubbling up’ and running down their streets after drains burst in the deluges.
Ben Lukey, flood duty manager at the Environment Agency, said: ‘Flooding is devastating so whilst we are pleased 1,450 properties have been protected, our thoughts are with the 40 households who have suffered.
‘The public need to stay on alert this weekend and into early next week as surface water and river flooding could still bring disruption in the south west as well as part of northern England.
‘Environment Agency teams have been out on the ground clearing grilles and screens where flood debris can build up and impede river flows, and stand ready to operate flood defences if needed.
‘Working with our partners in local resilience forums, we are supporting emergency response to keep people safe where flooding does occur.’
World leaders are first meeting in Rome for the G20 on Saturday before they will start gathering in Glasgow on Sunday ahead of the official opening on Monday.
The pressure is on leaders to make further commitments to reducing emissions in order to keep global temperature increases below 1.5C.
Those planning to travel to Glasgow by train were given some good news on Friday evening after services between London Euston and Glasgow were restored to normal.
Speed restrictions were imposed by Network Rail Scotland on the West Coast mainline on Friday morning after extreme rainfall.
Another period of heavy rain is expected to affect central and south-west Scotland from early on Saturday, the Met Office said, with 10-20mm predicted to fall quite widely across the warning area, much of this falling in only a few hours, and onto already wet or saturated ground.
Heavier rainfall of 30-40mm is possible across parts of Dumfries and Galloway, mainly on the hills, but rain will clear away eastwards later in the morning.
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