Scotland’s weather: Summer will get soggier, say forecasters

By CRAIG BROWN
Published on 10/07/2012 00:00

SCOTLAND is bracing itself for further wet weather this week, after the Met Office issued yellow warnings for persistent and heavy rain over the next 48 hours.

Forecasters say there will be no respite this week as flood-hit communities across the UK count the cost of recent torrential downpours.

Warnings are in place for Lothian, Fife and Perth and Kinross today and tomorrow. .

Met Office forecaster Charles Powell said the weather would not be on a par with the heaviest experienced by the country so far this summer, but it was the cumulative build-up of water that could cause problems.

“They don’t seem to be particularly huge [the areas of rain], but because it’s been so generally wet recently, some relatively insignificant rainfall may still cause some issues,” he said.

He said tomorrow would be the worse of the two days and there could be traffic problems caused by surface water.

Forecasters said the wet weather would come down from the north-east, which would also be hit by heavy rain.

The warnings come as parts of the country recovered from some of the heaviest rainfall experienced in recent years.

Residents in Edinburgh’s Stockbridge colonies continued cleaning up after the Water of Leith burst its banks on Saturday, flooding homes.

Council leader Andrew Burns said: “The floodwaters may have receded, but for those households affected it will take a lot longer to repair the damage caused on Saturday.

“Council teams have been working hard to clean up affected areas, clearing mud and debris from streets and pavements. From today, we will be leafleting all homes that have been hit by floodwater to offer assistance in removing damaged furniture and floor coverings, etc.”

He said the incident underlined the need to improve flood defences along the river.

The company building the defences, Lagan Construction, has been criticised for using sandbags as stop-gap protection, and failing to anticipate the potential for problems.

A spokeswoman for the company declined to comment

Last night, the Scottish Enivronment Protection Agency (Sepa) said river levels in areas that experienced flooding over the weekend were “generally falling, although there is currently some response to the overnight rainfall”.

A Sepa spokesman added: “On Tuesday afternoon and evening, however, there is the potential for river levels in central, eastern and southern Scotland to rise again in response to persistent rainfall. From Wednesday onwards, the risk of flooding is very low.”

Edinburgh city council said they would be monitoring the Water of Leith and were not expecting further flooding,
but people should be prepared if they know they live in
flood-prone areas or low-lying land.

Meanwhile, at T in the Park in Balado, the mammoth clean-up operation got unde way, following the conclusion of the three-day music festival.

The event managed to carry on, even though an unrelenting downpour on Saturday reduced the site to a massive quagmire.

The festival organisers said yesterday that a total of 810 people visited the hospital tent, 2,148 sought first-aid help and
33 people were taken to hospital offsite.

Bob MacGregor, of Onsite Medical Services, said: “Our team has attended to a lot of people this weekend, but the overwhelming majority have been folk who want to come in
and warm up, or who have minor ailments or pre-existing conditions.”