Warmer winters and more flooding will be the norm in the UK, scientists warn

The country should be building resilience into the infrastructure to counter flooding like that brought by Storm Henk, experts say

Hydrologist Hannah Cloke has a straightforward description of the inundation that has just struck Britain. “Our decorations may have come down but the flood warning map is currently lit up like a Christmas tree.”

And the immediate cause of this mayhem is clear. A sequence of storms this autumn and winter – Babet, Ciarán, Debi, Elin, Fergus and Gerrit – have turned Britain into “a sopping wet sponge”, as the Reading University researcher put it.