By JENNY FYALL
Published on Saturday 23 June 2012 00:00
DOWNPOURS and floods battered swathes of Scotland yesterday, with weather warnings in place for much of the country.
Yesterday’s torrential rain is expected to ease off today but a damp weekend looms.
The Met Office issued a yellow weather warning for rain yesterday, running until 9am this morning, covering Strathclyde, Central, Tayside and Fife, south-west Scotland, Lothian and the Borders.
Up to 1.5 inches of rain was expected to fall in some areas in three hours, with south-west Scotland worst hit.
The downpours are expected to continue until this morning, when they will gradually ease. However, the rest of the weekend will see rain and showers over much of Scotland, with brighter weather only returning on Monday.
Across the UK, the north-west of England was the worst-hit area, with an amber weather warning issued by the Met Office, four inches of rainfall forecast in some places and winds gusting to over 50 mph.
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) issued flood alerts for most of Scotland yesterday, urging people to be prepared.
In four areas – Greenlaw to Allanton in the Borders, Carse of Lennoch to Lochlane, Crieff to Innerpeffray and Innerpeffray to Bridge of Earn in Tayside – flood warnings were issued, meaning flooding was expected and immediate action was required.
Train services were disrupted, with ScotRail suspending services between Edinburgh and North Berwick due to a landslide at Prestonpans. CrossCountry and East Coast services between Edinburgh and Berwick-upon-Tweed were delayed by up to an hour and a half.
There were also delays on the Glasgow Central to Motherwell route due to flooding at Dalmarnock, and on some trains from Glasgow Queen Street were dalayed due to flooding in the Greenfaulds area.
Meanwhile, flood works on the Water of Leith in Stockbridge, Edinburgh, were themselves flooded as the river rose.
Matt Dobson, a forecaster with Meteogroup, said yesterday: “Throughout the day, the rain really is going to develop from south-west Scotland, across Northern Ireland down into north-west England. It will be very wet in those areas.”
A stretch of the A1 between Wallyford and Tranent was restricted by floodwater from around 11:30am yesterday.
Scots revellers were also among those forced to sleep in cars after heavy rain sparked traffic chaos for those travelling to the Isle of Wight music festival. Stephen Kerr, 31, a plumber from Glasgow, had to wait in the middle of the Solent on a ferry due to tailbacks on the island. He said: “When we did get to the other side, the traffic was at a standstill. We spent longer driving a couple of miles than we did driving 500 miles from Glasgow to the ferry.”
Elsewhere, events to mark the Olympic Torch’s arrival in Blackpool were moved inside. And a cricket international between England and the West Indies at Headingley was abandoned without a ball being bowled.
Your view
Please sign in to be able to comment on this story.
