Flood alerts and weather warning as heavy rain set to hit North Devon

Lashings of heavy rain are set to hit North Devon in the early hours of Friday morning.

A yellow weather warning is in place from 1am until 9am, across the whole South West.

A forecaster for the Met Office said: “Spells of rain, heavy at times and accompanied by windy weather, are likely to produce 20-40 mm of rain over a period of several hours.

“Coming on top of some recent very wet weather, this rain is likely to lead to some temporary flooding impacts before the rain quickly clears early Friday morning.”

Flood alerts have also been issued by the Environment Agency this afternoon (Thursday) for the lower Torridge area, as well as Barnstaple, Braunton, Ilfracombe and Combe Martin.

A spokesman for the EA said: “Flooding is possible in the early hours of the 7th December.

“We are expecting heavy rainfall from this evening through to the early hours of tomorrow morning.

“River catchments are wet and responding quickly to rainfall. This is expected to cause the river levels in South Devon to rise, peaking in the early hours of the morning.

“Flooding of low lying land in the floodplain, and roads close to the river is expected.

“We expect the lower river Torridge to remain high throughout Friday. Take care near the areas of concern and monitor your local weather conditions.

“We are constantly monitoring river levels, and have staff, in the area checking for and clearing blockages in this location.”

More as we have it.