Severe flooding in Cornwall
The Coverack in West Cornwall was badly damaged by flooding after a storm brought torrential rain to the area on 18 July 2017.
Floods in Cornwall
2 September 2017 21:00 UTC–3 September 18:00 UTC
On 3 September 2017 a complex of frontal systems brought prolonged and, occasionally, heavy rain to the southwest of England, causing flooding in parts of Cornwall.
Last Updated
10 October 2022
Published on
02 September 2017
By Ian Mills (Ian Mills Training)
The Met Office analysis on 3 September 2017 at 00:00 UTC showed several fronts approaching the west of the UK. The broad swathe of frontal cloud associated with these fronts can be seen on the Meteosat-10 Airmass RGB image (Figure 1).
The cloud and associated rain moved very slowly eastwards, as can be seen on the Airmass cloud animation, 2 September 21:00 UTC–3 September 18:00. Also on the animation cumulonimbus (CB) tops can be seen embedded in the frontal cloud.
Outbreaks of heavy rain can be seen, as areas of bright pink, on the 05:00 UTC radar image (Figure 2) and the radar animation. These areas tie in well with the convective cloud tops visible on the Airmass RGB image at the same time (Figure 3).
The outbreaks of heavy rain and the fact that the rain lasted all day, led to the flooding in parts of Cornwall
Additional content
Cornwall floods leave motorists trapped in vehicles (BBC News)
