You may well have been hearing about Storm Babet on the news, and so we wanted to pass on information from the Met Office with the latest forecast and advice as of this morning:

Rain
“The overnight rain has now cleared to the north with the rest of today seeing a mix of sunny spells and showers. A few heavy showers are possible this afternoon before they die out early evening.

However, further areas of locally heavy rain are expected to develop during tonight, becoming slow moving across the area through much of tomorrow and into the evening before it turns slightly more showery in nature overnight and into Saturday. 20 to 40 mm are expected to fall quite widely, but the Yorkshire Dales and South Pennines could widely see 40 to 60mm with east-facing slopes seeing as much as 80 to 120 mm through the period.

This morning, on top of an updated Yellow Rain warning (Low Likelihood of Medium Impacts) which has been issued this morning to cover all our region, the Met Office have also issued an Amber Rain Warning valid from 12:00 on Friday 20th October until 06:00 on Saturday 21st October.”

Wind
“The rain will be accompanied by strong easterly winds at times which may exacerbate the impacts brought about by the heavy rain. Through Friday afternoon and overnight into Saturday coastal gales are expected to bring gusts of 40 to 60 mph a short way inland with some strong winds across the Pennines too. The Yellow Wind warning (Medium Likelihood of Low Impacts) issued yesterday remains in force. The wind is expected to ease from the south through Friday night.

Weekend ahead
Further showers or longer spells of rain are expected on Saturday but they will be much lighter than we will see tomorrow with a drier, although not completely dry, period of weather currently expected to develop on Sunday and for much of Monday.”

As a consequence of this forecast, the local authority and other agencies are making preparations in advance of the weather. We are also advising communities to familiarise themselves with their own emergency plans. if you would like to keep up date with the Met Office information, there is the Met Office App or the Met Office website for the latest forecast, rainfall radar images and latest warning details.

Jason Wainwright
Emergency Planning Officer, Resilience & Emergencies Team
North Yorkshire Council
County Hall, Northallerton,
DL7 8AD