Winter storms of 2013–14 in the United Kingdom

2013–14 United Kingdom winter floods

Emergency pumps were brought in to drain the Somerset levels.
Date	5 December 2013 – 25 February 2014
Location	United Kingdom and Ireland
Deaths	at least 17 dead

The 2013–2014 United Kingdom winter floods saw areas of the United Kingdom inundated following severe storms. The south of England saw heavy rainfalls associated with these storms which caused widespread flooding, power cuts and major disruptions to transport. Economically the worst affected areas were Somerset, Devon, Dorset and Cornwall in the south west and the Thames Valley in the south east. The Met Office reported the storms were responsible for the wettest December to January period since 1876. The flood phenomena ranged from coastal flooding, pluvial flooding, fluvial flooding to groundwater flooding. The flooding resulted in the inundation of the majority of the Somerset Levels and saw the main railway line to Cornwall and West Devon at Dawlish severed for several weeks.

A series of low pressure areas developed or formed over North America explosively deepening over the Atlantic/gulf stream before reaching the European coast. An Omega Block developed over northern Norway/Scandinavia which prevented the lows moving east over Europe, with a series of lows "dying" to the northwest of Britain and Ireland. The blocking pattern over northern Norway led to a severe drought and forest fires there in early 2014.

The period began on 5 December 2013 when a deep low pressure area moved from the Atlantic over Scotland and the North Sea inducing a storm surge in the Irish Sea and North Sea coasts of the United Kingdom. In the North Sea some of the highest level tides were recorded in the Humber and Thames estuaries, exceeding levels which occurred during the disastrous North Sea flood of 1953. Flooding occurred in Tyneside, Teesside, along the Yorkshire coast, around the Humber and the Wash, where in particular the town of Boston, Lincolnshire was badly affected by when the high tide overtopped defences.

Coastal flooding particularly affected the south and west of the UK, with severe damage reported Wales, Cornwall, Devon and Dorset. A particularly notable event occurred on 5 February when the seawall and railway line were breached at Dawlish.

The main railway line between Exeter and Newton Abbot was severed on 3 February when a 165 ft (50 m) section of the Riviera Line track was damaged at Dawlish.Network Rail said it had pulled all repair staff away from working on washed away track on 4 February. A section of the town's sea wall was later reported to have washed away among with the track. A Network Rail spokesman estimated "hundreds of tonnes" of ballast had been dislodged from under tracks after they had "taken a real pounding from the sea".