A month’s worth of rain in 72 hours

It has been revealed that Montgomeryshire was saturated with more than a month’s worth of rain over the last 72 hours.

 

Rivers burst their banks and remain on flood alert, forcing several main roads to close over the weekend and almost reducing Welshpool to an island unreachable by road.

 

The roads from the town to Llanfair and Oswestry have since re-opened but there is flooding on many b-roads in the county and fallen trees are compounding the problems for motorists. Machynlleth was also badly affected with some local roads still closed.

 

And the Met Office has reported that 179mm of rain fell at its local recording station, well above the February total monthly average of 139mm.

 

The weather follows two months of freezing temperatures which have taken their toll on structures with one bridge near Chirbury forced to close after part of it collapsed. A similar problem that caused the Aberbechan Bridge to be closed since early January.

 

Fire crews attended calls from households across the county, including a rented house in Robin Square, Newtown which became flooded. Further afield and the main street through Builth Wells was closed after reports of falling roof slates.

 

A spokesperson for the Mid and West Wales Fire Service reported: “It’s been a busy few days for the service!”

 

There is some respite though on the way. A dry spell is expected over the next 24 hours before the wet and windy weather returns on Wednesday.