It may not be "up north" but down here on the Wiltshire Avon valley the hills each side are saturated, so there is a lot more water to clear. The hills are mostly chalk, with only a thin layer of soil: normally rain is adsorbed by the chalk, so there are few streams.
It looks as though the chalk is saturated: the result is that new springs are appearing and water running off where no stream has ever flowed.
Much of this new runoff is collecting on minor roads, so the ditches are full and the roads under water. Tarka will be staying in the garage for some time to come, I fear.
More rain is forecast, but nothing like as much as over the last 2 weekends. We have a rain gauge in the garden: it shows up to 80mm, but is overflowing. So I think tht over the last two events we bust have had over 4" and perhaps 6" rain. Annual rainfall here is 29", so in two weekends we have had 20% of the annual total.
