It is with great shock that we are witnessing the third period of intense flooding in the North-West of England in the past decade. The rains brought by Storm Desmond have been record breaking, and simply too great for most flood alleviation schemes to fully hold back.

The flooding has also brought vast quantities of sediment and debris with it, and has destroyed bridges, roads and other important infrastructure. The changes floods cause to rivers, valleys and the flood plain are often overlooked in reporting, but can have very long lasting influence.

In response to this, myself and Lynda Yorke wrote a press release for the British Society for Geomorphology –

“Flooding and Geomorphology – Dr Chris Skinner (University of Hull)  and Dr Lynda Yorke (University of Bangor) on behalf of the British Society for Geomorphology

The past weekend has seen record breaking levels of rainfall fall upon the North-West of England. Storm Desmond, as named by the MetOffice’s ‘Name our Storms’ pilot project (http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/uk-storm-centre), has brought with it scenes of devastation as flood defences overtop and water spilled into people’s houses….”

You can read the full release here.

For more detail on the flooding and why the defences could not hold back all of the water, these BBC articles contains some superb analysis –

How do you stop flooding?

Storm Desmond: Defences against indefencicble floods