Fresh heavy rain warning issued amid hundreds of flood alerts

February 8, 2026 / Kim browne /

The Met Office has issued a fresh weather warning for heavy rain, with more than 200 flood alerts still in place.

The new yellow warning is for southwest England and large parts of South Wales, and lasts from 12pm on Monday to midnight.

It spans Cornwall to Portsmouth, with affected areas in Wales including Cardiff.

Other areas within the warning include Truro, Plymouth, Torquay, Exeter and Taunton.

Further east, Weymouth, Wareham, Southampton, Salisbury and Chichester are affected.

In Wales, the warning also spans across Swansea, Newport and St David’s.

• Aberdeen has had zero hours of sunshine since 21 January. It’s the longest sunless period there since 1957.

• Sheffield has had zero hours of sunshine so far this month.

• Katesbridge had its wettest February day on record on 5 February – 67.2mm in 24 hours, beating the previous February site record of 42.2mm in 1985.

• It’s rained every day for the last 37 days in the UK – every day so far this year.

• Several sites across the UK haven’t had an entirely dry day since 30 December, which would mean rain on Sunday would be the 40th consecutive day.

• Exeter Airport has not had a dry day since 31 December.

• The UK as a whole has had below-average sunshine hours for winter so far.

• Rainfall has been quite varied depending on where you live. For example, Eastern Scotland has been very wet, Western Scotland very dry.

Meanwhile, the Environment Agency has 88 flood warnings in place, mostly across southwest England and the East and West Midlands.

There are also 223 flood alerts.

A flood warning means flooding is expected, and an alert means flooding is possible.

The Met Office said on Thursday that rain had fallen every day of 2026 so far in southwest England and South Wales.

There has been 50% more rainfall than usual in both, the forecaster added.

Both have experienced a far wetter than average January, with 50% more rainfall than usual, the forecasters said.

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