The 24-hour rain deluge set to follow snow with flooding and road closures warning

Andrew Forgrave
·2-min read
Met Office yellow alert for heavy rain over Wales on Saturday, November 23, and into Sunday morning
-Credit: (Image: Met Office)


A spell of torrential rain heading for Wales this weekend is expected to cause flooding and travel disruption. The Met Office has issued a yellow alert which warns of up to 15cm of rain falling in a few parts of the country during a 24-hour period.

The downpour alert takes effect from 6am on Saturday, November 23. It will remain in place until 6am on Sunday morning. The alert area covers much of Wales but excludes Anglesey, north Gwynedd, the Llŷn Peninsula and the North Wales coast. The boundary includes Eryri and runs in a line from Llanrwst to Llangollen and Chirk.

The Met Office said: “A deep area of low pressure is expected to bring a spell of prolonged and, at times, heavy rainfall across a large part of the UK this weekend. Across Wales and western England, rain and hill snow is expected to develop during the early hours of Saturday morning before falling as rain to all levels by late morning and continuing through to early Sunday morning.

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"50-75 mm of rain is expected to fall fairly widely with 100-125mm of rain over higher ground, particularly in south Wales. There is a chance that prolonged heavy rain could become slow-moving over south Wales with up to 150mm possible in a few places and it is here where impacts are most likely. Strong southerly winds will accompany the heavy rain and may locally exacerbate impacts.”

The Met Office said there was a risk some communities could be be cut off by flooded roads. Homes and businesses could be flooded too, “causing damage to some buildings”.

Some roads may have to close and driving conditions are expected to be difficult in the alert zone. Power cuts are possible and public transport might be affected. Join the North Wales Live WhatsApp community group where you can get the latest stories delivered straight to your phone

This morning the Met Office also issued a yellow alert for ice tonight, affecting North Wales. There's more on this here.

A weekend rain alert has also been published for southeast England but with slightly less dire warnings. In addition, the approaching Atlantic low is expected to produce heavy snow on its leading edge in northern England and Scotland on Saturday morning.

With temperatures set to rise over the weekend, this snow is set to thaw rapidly and, with subsequent rain on Saturday night, this may add to potential disruption. Sign up for the North Wales Live newsletter sent twice daily to your inbox

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