November 2009 Great Britain and Ireland floods

2009 Great Britain and Ireland floods

Areas affected by flooding   Death(s) from flooding   Areas affected by strong winds   Death(s) from strong winds
Date	1 November 2009 – December 2009
Location	Ireland Cork County Carlow County Clare County Cork County Dublin County Galway County Kerry County Kildare County Kilkenny County Leitrim County Limerick County Longford County Mayo County Offaly County Roscommon County Sligo County Tipperary County Westmeath Northern Ireland England Cornwall Cumbria Devon Dorset East Sussex Essex Hampshire Isle of Wight Kent Lancashire Shropshire Suffolk West Sussex Northern Ireland County Londonderry County Tyrone Scotland Dumfries and Galloway Perth and Kinross Scottish Borders Wales Carmarthenshire Conwy Pembrokeshire Powys Elsewhere Isle of Man
Deaths	4

The 2009 Great Britain and Ireland floods were a weather event that affected parts of Great Britain and Ireland throughout November and into December 2009. November was the wettest month across the United Kingdom since records began in 1914 and had well above average temperatures. The worst affected area in Great Britain was the English county of Cumbria. The Irish counties of Clare, Cork, Galway and Westmeath were among the worst affected areas of Ireland.

European windstorms bringing heavy rain and gale-force winds caused damage and flooding to the south of Great Britain on 13–14 November. Unsettled weather continued across the south and later to the north. On 19–20 November, many towns and villages in Cumbria and Dumfries and Galloway were affected. A number of bridges collapsed, one of which led to the death of a police officer, who was standing on the bridge when it collapsed. Another death occurred on 21 November as a canoeist was trapped against a tree near Poundsgate, on Dartmoor in Devon. In Powys, there were two deaths, at Newtown and Talybont-on-Usk.

Among the many places severely flooded was the Republic of Ireland's second largest city, Cork. For more than ten days, 40 per cent of its population were without running water after a treatment plant was affected by several metres of flood water.University College Cork was damaged and at least a week of lectures was cancelled. Courts were also disrupted, with some eventually being moved to a hotel. At the time, Taoiseach Brian Cowen described the situation in Ireland as an "ongoing emergency" that was going to get worse.

Before the severe gales affecting the United Kingdom on 13 November, unsettled weather had been affecting all of the United Kingdom since 12 November.