The exceptional rainfall event of 11 and 12 October 2000 in Kent and Sussex, as observed and as forecast by the Met Office Mesoscale Model

The autumn of 2000 was, as many will recall only too vividly, an exceptionally wet season across large parts of Britain, indeed the wettest across England and Wales since records began in 1766. (Further details can be found on the Met Office website at http://www.metoffice.com/climate/uk.) There was an abnormally high incidence of significant rainfall events accompanied by localised - and not-so-localised - flooding. Most of the flooding resulted from heavy and/or prolonged rainfall over relatively large areas, more often than not originating from active frontal zones. That which affected parts of Sussex and Kent during 11 and 12 October 2000 was an example of a much more localised rainfall event, which nevertheless resulted in severe flooding for a number of communities. The magnitude of the crisis was doubtless exacerbated by the considerable rainfall which had fallen over the area during the preceding days, following on from a wet September.