Map shows where floods will strike when Britain is hit by 12 hours of rain from 500-mile Atlantic rainmaker on Mother’s Day weekend with 30 flood warnings and alerts in place

• Britain faces a 500 mile-wide ‘Atlantic rainmaker’ bringing 12 hours of deluges
• 33 flood alerts are in place, with seven warnings in Yorkshire and West Midlands

Britain faces a water-logged Mother’s Day weekend as a 500 mile-wide ‘Atlantic rainmaker’ brings 12 hours of deluges.

It means waves of heavy downpours are forecast in the coming days, with the risk of floodings in towns and cities across the country.

Showers will be experienced by much of the UK today, as the wave of rainfall comes ushering eastwards.

The Environment Agency has enacted 33 flood alerts in areas where flooding is a possibility, and seven flood warnings in parts of the country most likely to be soaked.

These include villages around the River Severn in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, and around the River Ouse in York, The Sun reports.

The flooded A1101 at Welney on the Cambridgeshire and Norfolk border this afternoon

A map shows areas where flood alerts and warnings are in place, with a number in the midlands and Yorkshire

Maps show the regions most acutely at risk of finding themselves underwater. 

Riverside properrties in York are already suffering flood damage this morning, with residents urged to ‘act now’.

Six alerts are in place for Scotland and another six for Wales.

Rain is also expected on Friday before the 12-hour soaking follows on Saturday affecting most of England.

More sharp showers and leaden skies are due on Sunday, dampening family get-togethers.

The Met Office said March is twice as wet as normal for millions. The South had its entire average rainfall for the whole of March by March 15.

Bookmakers Coral cut odds on March being the wettest on record from 3/1 to 6/4.

Coral spokesman John Hill said: ‘It’s a mad March for weather, with snow followed by floods.’

A car travels east along the flooded A1101 in Welney, Cambridgeshire, after the River Delph burst its banks

Over two inches’ rain is due this weekend and next week in the North, with over an inch in the sodden South, computer forecast models show.

Two inches’ rain are expected to deluge Cumbria today.

Netweather forecaster Nick Finnis said: ‘Computer models show unsettled conditions will continue with rainfall on the way for many parts, greatest in the North and West.’

The Environment Agency said: ‘Local river and surface water flooding was possible for parts of the North, and flooding impacts are possible from the River Severn to Saturday.

‘Land, roads and some properties may flood and there may be travel disruption.’

National Highways North-West estimated at one point congestion stretched to eight miles on the M62 as snow hit Britain last week 

News of the deluge follows days of freezing cold weather in the UK, with heavy snowfall in the Scottish highlands.

Powerful winds, combined with snow and ice, triggered carnage on the railway lines, with downed trees blocking tracks and forcing services to be suspended. 

Temperatures plummeted to a -13.6C in Altnaharra in the Scottish Highlands. While the Met Office said the greatest depth of snow recorded was 27cm (10.7in) at Capel Curig in north Wales.

There was also an official record of 14cm (5.5in) at Bingley in West Yorkshire but a Met Office spokesman said that anecdotally they have heard of observations higher than this in Leeds and Sheffield.

Drivers remained stuck on the M62 after more than seven hours in miles-long tailbacks caused by a night of heavy snowfall.

Traffic was brought to a standstill on long stretches of the road running through Yorkshire and Greater Manchester in the early hours of this morning, with some drivers said to have abandoned their cars.

Tracks in Grindleford in the Peak District were completely covered in snow as almost 11 inches fell in parts of the UK

A Network Rail worker in up to eight inches of snow above the railhead at Grindleford in the Peak District

Kelly-Marie Prentice was one of the motorists caught in the carnage on the M62 and was left stranded in her car for six hours with her 15-year-old son as a blizzard raged outside. 

Speaking from her car, she told Sky News: ‘I would say there are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of cars. It goes back for 16 miles I think in one way.

‘We’re trying to keep ourselves as awake as possible and not think about needing to go to the toilet or have a drink.’

Palwasha Afzal, 23, began her journey from Manchester to Huddersfield at midnight – and was still on the motorway nine hours later. Her drive usually takes around an hour.

The credit hire consultant said: ‘I’m still travelling on the motorway, travelling from Manchester to Huddersfield, we left at 12am and we’re currently still here.

‘The motorway is horrific. There’s lorries broken down, cars broken down, there’s lorries spinned on the motorway, it’s horrible.

‘We’ve been here for nine hours. Honestly, I’m drained. Luckily my husband is driving not me.’

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