Floods in India and the UK & Australia

Floods leave thousands in Orissa, West Bengal stranded

BALASORE (ORISSA)/KOLKATA: Thousands of people have been marooned as torrential rains hampered relief work in parts of Orissa and West Bengal.

Most rivers in Orissa are in spate, forcing flood control authorities to open 20 sluice gates of the Hirakud Dam after water levels in the reservoir rose menacingly. At least 120 villages in Orissa's Balasore and Mayurbhanj District are flooded.

Authorities have shifted hundreds of people from low-lying areas to safer places.

"We have kept all our cyclone shelters, primary and high school buildings open round the clock," said Sarat Chandra Sahu, Director, Meteorology Department, Bhubaneshwar.

A large number of people in West Bengal continue to remain cut off from the rest of the country after surging river waters, broke through mud embankments and swamped villages...

__________________

Floods: The worst affected places (UK)

More than 28,000 properties were affected by the flooding that hit large parts of the UK, a BBC survey of local councils suggests.

In Hull, 17,000 properties were flooded...

Hundreds of people were trapped in their homes and offices as floods swept through Sheffield. More than 1,200 homes were affected...

More than 700 people have been unable to return home following flooding in Doncaster. Some may never be able to return, the town's mayor Martin Winter said....

"June wettest since records began"(UK)

Last month was the wettest June the UK had seen since detailed records began in 1914.

The Met Office confirmed that 134.5mm (5.3in) of rain fell across the four countries.

The average June rainfall in the UK is 72.6mm (3in).

A new record was also set for England, with 140.2mm (5.5in) of rain...

More heavy downpours are expected across the UK as the clear-up continues in areas hit by severe flooding.
__________________

It was also the wettest June for Australia.

If southerners heading north for warmer climes felt they’d been short-changed these past few weeks, the Bureau of Meteorology has confirmed their suspicions, with the Australian tropics experiencing one of the coldest June months on record. The Bureau’s National Climate Centre has also noted that the cold conditions experienced from 17 to 22 June were accompanied by widespread unseasonable rain during what is normally the dry season.

The cold snap resulted from the combination of an extensive and slow-moving middle-level cloud band associated with an upper-level trough. At the same time, there was a south-southeasterly surge over much of the tropics as a direct result of the circulation from the intense low-pressure system off the NSW coast, which brought the flood rain to that region.

The conditions have contributed to a new record for the wettest June in tropical Australia, with the area-averaged total of 46.9 millimetres (as of 27 June) exceeding the previous record of 39.1 mm set in both 1939 and 1973.

(That followed the "Warmest May and autumn on record in eastern Australia")