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Barnaby Bear has seen several signs around the UK that warn about flooding. He wonders why these signs are there - what could cause a road to flood? |
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The Draynes Valley in Cornwall has lots of signs like this.
The River Fowey runs all the way through this valley next to the road. On either side of the road is marshland.
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Most of the water in this marshland comes from rain water: directly from the sky, and runoff from the
hills.
Click here to learn more about the marsh. |
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Because the marsh is already full of water it can't hold much more. When it rains a lot, most of the rain water
sits on the top of the marsh and flows off onto the valley road. Where the drainage channels go under the road,
the extra water adds to the height of the river.
| Because the road is in a river valley, it gets water from both sides. The marsh on one side, and the river on the other. |
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The water from the other hill also flows over the marsh and into the river.
You can see that the river is very deep at the moment.
Hover your mouse over the picture to see what it looks like in normal conditions. |
The river gets deeper because it can't carry the water away quickly enough. Compare these photos of the River Fowey on a sunny day, and on a rainy day.
The height of the water is much higher in the second photograph. How far up the bridge does it come?
You can just see the top of a tree in the second photograph. It is growing on what is usually the riverbank!
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Water is also drained from the road into the river through these drainage channels. In this picture they are working the other way around - water is draining back onto the road from the river! |
Hover your mouse over the picture to see this part of the road on a sunny
day.
This part of the valley road is one of the first to flood.
Fifteen minutes of rain later, the road here is almost completely flooded. This part of the road gets so deep that cars can't use it!
Rivers cause floods in other parts of the country too. This is a river and field in Yorkshire during July
2004. At this time, Hurricane Charley was causing chaos all over the world. Even though the hurricane was
in America, the remains of the it caused some really bad weather in the UK.
Larry the lamb was visiting Yorksire when it flooded - he can see trees in the middle of the river, but he's not quite sure which side of the trees the river is supposed to be on!
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This place looks very different to normal. Can you guess what is underneath all the water? |
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...it's a car park! |
| The car park is next to a lake that has flooded. These people don't mind though - they went boating in the car park and the lake! |
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These people aren't the only ones who don't mind the bad weather...
...the cows like the floods - it means they don't have to walk so far -their drink comes to them instead!
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