Rain alerts for southwest England risk exacerbating flood-hit areas

Yellow rain alerts have been issued in the southwest of England in the wake of Storm Chandra, affecting previously sodden ground from the storm.

The Met Office issued the alerts from 12pm today to 9am on Tuesday, which covers Cornwall, Devon, Dorset and Somerset, and warns people's properties may be at risk of flooding.

Meteorologist Jonathan Vautrey says a band of rain will gradually push northwards from today.

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"It'll take a little bit of time, sort of pushing into the Isles of Scilly and Cornwall as we head into the start of the afternoon, and then gradually heading towards Devon, Somerset and Dorset later on in the day and into the overnight period in this area, quite widely - seeing 10 to 20 millimetres of rain," he says.

"But locally over the hills, and particularly Dartmoor, we could see 50 to 60 millimetres of rain because this area is so saturated."

Mr Vautrey warns that while it's not as high as previous occasions, there is the potential of exacerbating what's been seen so far.

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The forecaster says further rain today also brings the potential risk of causing difficulty on roads, with fast-flowing or deep floodwater potentially causing a "danger to life" and communities being cut off by floods.

The rain warnings follow yellow ice warnings that were issued on Sunday for the southwest of England, Wales and Northern Ireland, which are set to end at 9am today, with the Met Office advising road users to beware of ice patches on untreated roads.

As of this morning, there were 119 flood alerts across the country, with 57 warnings in England - the majority of which are in Somerset, Dorset and Wiltshire.

Somerset Council is also warning the expected further rain could flood additional homes in the Moorland, Saltmoor and Currymoor areas.

Last week, a major incident was declared in Somerset when about 50 properties were hit by flooding caused by Storm Chandra.

(c) Sky News 2026: Rain alerts for southwest England risk exacerbating flood-hit areas