BSEE FLOOD PROTECTION


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IS FLOODING SEASONAL? Protecting your business and home


Records show that most of the UK’s rainfall is between November and April. These winter months are oen associated with fiooding in this country, but is this actually the case? Simon Crowther, founder and MD of Flood Protecon Soluons, reports.


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hifting weather patterns are creating uncertainty among meteorologists, who are often struggling to predict upcoming flood events until it’s too late. There is no doubt that we see large scale flood events in winter months, and they are often viewed as the months where flooding is most prevalent. Ground is often saturated, leaving the area at risk of flooding as the ground can’t soak up further rainfall and one intense rainfall event can cause huge amounts of surface run off, rapidly transporting water into watercourses which often can’t cope and subsequently flood. The Cumbria and Lancashire region has been subject to the worst floods in our nation’s history, being hit with widespread flooding in the winter of 2005, 2009 and 2015/16. In January 2005, 200mm of rainfall fell in 36 hours – that’s equal to four months of rain for the area.


The flash flooding that ensued was caused by rain falling on saturated ground and on impermeable surfaces, all of which allowed the water to enter the river rapidly causing its banks to breach.


In 2009, 316mm of rainfall fell in a single day (November 19th), a record setting amount. History once repeated itself in 2015/16, when Cumbria was subject to more record-breaking rainfall (341mm on December 5th), causing a similar scenario to 2005 where huge amounts of


rainfall was falling on already saturated ground, following the second wettest November since records began in 1910.


Summer flooding


Whilst the winter months can bring devastating flooding, the summer months pose a different


uTemporary barriers are great tools to fight floodwaters as they can be rolled up and stored away, ready for rapid deployment.


kind of threat. Higher temperatures associated with these months, along with a changing climate, see a shift in the type of flood risk.


28 BUILDING SERVICES & ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEER SEPTEMBER 2018


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