Met Office to review warnings after East of England floods

The Met Office has said it will conduct a "full review of our forecasts and warnings" after claims its warnings about Storm Babet were not accurate.

Parts of Suffolk and Norfolk were lashed by rain and hit by devastating flooding on Friday.

While a red warning was issued for Scotland, a more moderate yellow warning was given for eastern England.

"Storm Babet was a complex weather system impacting large parts of the UK over a number of areas," it said.

A total of 13 areas broke their daily rainfall records for October last week across the UK, the government-run organisation said.

A major incident was declared in Suffolk on Friday during the storm after a deluge of heavy rain hit roads, homes and businesses.

Simon Brown, Met Office services director, said while the rainfall was high in Suffolk, only half the amount was measured in Essex.

He added the warning included that flooding could occur, potentially resulting in places being cut off and traffic disruption.

"Whilst we accurately predicted the impacts in Scotland, the localised high intensity rainfall that occurred in Suffolk was more difficult to forecast and this was reflected in the level of certainty within our warnings," said Mr Brown.

"Our first weather warning for impacts in Suffolk were issued for heavy rain on Monday and updated on Wednesday for 25-50mm of rain to fall quite widely across a swathe of eastern England."

There was heavier rain than expected - with Charsfield in Suffolk recording 78mm in 24 hours, as did Wattisham.

Mr Brown added: "Localised rainfall amounts were higher than expected - and we will, of course, be undertaking a full review of our forecasts and warnings associated with the very complex situation related to Storm Babet.

"Our thoughts are with the communities who have been impacted by Storm Babet during what remains a very difficult time."

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