Yellow weather alert issued for Flintshire as heavy rain is set to move in over the weekend

The Met Office has issued a yellow alert for heavy rain in Flintshire over the weekend as the UK braces itself for Storm Abigail, the first Atlantic storm to be officially named by the Met Office.

The far north of Britain looks likely to get a battering from storm force winds later today and overnight into Friday, gusts of up 90 mph are being forecast for parts of Scotland.

Abigail is currently heading up from the west of Ireland deepening as it sweeps northeast towards the Faroe Isles by midnight where an AMBER warning has been put into place.

For us in Deeside the slow moving frontal system to the northwest Wales will start to bring heavy downpours to the region, a yellow alert for rain is in place from 3pm on Saturday to 3am on Monday.

The Chief Weather Forecaster says:

“A strong, moist westerly flow is expected to develop during Saturday and last through Sunday before clearing to the southeast on Monday. A frontal system aligned within this flow is expected to bring a period of heavy and persistent rain, this aided by tropical air being entrained into the system.

Many parts of the warning area are likely to see 70-100 mm of rain, with some of the more exposed parts of north Wales and northwest England possibly seeing as much as 150-200 mm through the period.

This amount of additional rainfall falling on to already saturated ground is likely to lead to flooding, either from standing water, or from rivers bursting their banks.

There is some uncertainty in the exact areas likely to be affected by the heaviest rain, perhaps more especially southwest Scotland. As such, this warning will be kept under review to hone areas most at risk of the heaviest rain, and to potentially escalate to an Amber, should significant impacts become more likely.”