hi, The reason there is so much fooding (we have had some locally) is because the ground is so wet and there is nowhere for it to go simple as that, it could be because of local issues like drains or houses built on natural flood areas or just the plain fact that most of the rain now goes straight down the drains and into the rivers /streams that cannot hold so much water, this exasibates the problems futher down stream, this must be true as the more rain we get the more flooding there is. when it dries up a bit and the ground dries out the problem dissapears even if there is a deluge later on,
question is why so much rain now and why was it so dry over the winter last couple of years ??? well it's down to the gulf stream over the last 3 years it has moved south between us and the channel so now we are north of it instead of south. this puts us within the anti cyclones of the artic and not as usual the cyclones of the south , during the summer (what there has been) all the hot air from europe .
and no I dont mean the EU. has been trapped south of the channel. while we have been getting the colder damp air form the north,
this will continue for as long as the gulf stream stays where it is, so get used to it,
the main question though is why the change, well thats down to the melting ice caps sending colder water down to the gulf of Mexico where the gulf stream starts and it has the effect of redirecting it closer to the equater the more cold water the futher south it goes, the more rain we get, in the winter it has the opposite effect as it the nothern air is colder than the south and contains less moisture as most of this falls as snow, so the winters are drier,
what is causing the the ice caps to melt is another question but they are, as no one could have forseen this 40years ago I doubt whether planning rules would have altered so as to accomodate the increased rain fall many cities could have benifitted from the building of storm drains but its too late now,
are our problems man made of course they are, one way or the other .