Several of those flood messages still say “tomorrow morning”. They were changed on Tuesday 27 October, so the morning they mean is Wednesday. The dates inside them are 28 October. If you are reading this while that tide is running, do not wait for another day because the sentence has not been rewritten. The same messages say they will be updated during Wednesday morning, some by 7:00am, some by 10:00am, Wells and Cley by 11:00am. The Flood Forecasting Centre’s next statement was due at 10:30 on Wednesday. Open Check for flooding again before you treat a clock on this page as still current. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland publish their own flood services. A count for England does not describe a street in Glasgow, Cardiff or Belfast.
A weather warning and a flood warning are different lists
The Tuesday wind page was about a yellow weather warning. The Met Office week strip, when this page was written, showed no weather warning from Wednesday 28 October through Tuesday 3 November. The same national page says the warnings service is having trouble and that warnings may be out of date, so read it again for your own postcode. A blank day on that strip does not cancel a flood warning. The Met Office guide to flood warnings separates a weather warning from the flood products issued by the Environment Agency, Natural Resources Wales and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency.
GOV.UK uses three flood levels, and they are not colours on a weather map. A flood alert means flooding is possible: be prepared. A flood warning means flooding is expected: take action. A severe flood warning means a danger to life. The England list used for this page had no severe flood warning. It had 15 flood warnings and 42 flood alerts. Fourteen of the warnings are tidal and name Wednesday 28 October. The fifteenth is Keswick Campsite, where the message changed at 06:43 on Tuesday still describes high river and lake levels after Storm Boelo, mentions showers on Tuesday, and says it will be updated by 9:00am on Wednesday. That is leftover water in Cumbria. It is not the North Sea tide, and it is not a reason for a house in Newcastle to ignore the quay.
The Flood Forecasting Centre statement issued at 10:30 on Tuesday 27 October, in the guidance statement for responders, put the overall flood risk at low. It said moderate coastal flooding impacts are probable for parts of the North East coast of England on Wednesday morning, from a large storm surge and high tides, and possible more widely along the east and south-east coasts of England the same morning. It said moderate coastal impacts are possible but not expected for parts of the south and west coasts of Wales on Wednesday morning, from high tides. River, surface-water and groundwater flood risk were each very low for the five days covered by that statement. “Low” and “very low” are the statement’s own words for the country-wide picture. They do not mean a named quay is dry. The places where flooding is expected are the flood warnings, not the national adjective.
Read the flood warning for your postcode, not the weather map and not this table, before you walk down to “see how high it is”. The live page can add or remove a place after the clocks below.
Where flooding is expected on Wednesday’s tide
The table is the 14 tidal flood warnings on the Environment Agency list, with the window each message gives for Wednesday 28 October and the time that message was last changed on Tuesday. Times are as printed. A 2:45am start is the early hours of Wednesday, not Thursday. Yorkshire coast messages changed at 21:59 on Tuesday say the wind is predominantly offshore, so the main risk they name is higher water, not a gale blowing straight onshore. They still tell you to stay off promenades where spray can come over. Berwick names properties exposed to waves from the south. Those are different sentences. Do not copy the offshore line onto a warning that does not use it.
| Warning area | Flooding expected | Message changed |
|---|---|---|
| Newcastle Quayside, Low Walker, Lower Derwenthaugh and Willington | 2:45am–5:15am | 17:43 Tuesday |
| Berwick-upon-Tweed and Tweedmouth | 3:00am–5:00am | 17:43 Tuesday |
| Alnmouth | 3:30am–5:30am | 17:42 Tuesday |
| Whitley Bay, Cullercoats and Tynemouth | 3:45am–5:45am | 17:43 Tuesday |
| Whitby Harbour and the tidal River Esk | 3:15am–5:45am | 21:59 Tuesday |
| Staithes | 3:30am–5:30am | 21:59 Tuesday |
| Bridlington, Harbour Road and Floral Pavilion | 4:00am–6:30am | 21:59 Tuesday |
| Bridlington South Pier | 4:00am–6:30am | 21:59 Tuesday |
| Easington and Kilnsea | 4:00am–8:00am | 21:59 Tuesday |
| Humber, Kilnsea to Skeffling and Weeton | 4:30am–7:30am | 21:59 Tuesday |
| Hessle Haven | 5:30am–8:30am | 21:59 Tuesday |
| Wells Quay, north Norfolk | 5:00am–9:00am | 15:03 Tuesday |
| Salthouse and east Cley | 5:00am–9:00am | 15:03 Tuesday |
| South Hayling and South Eastoke | Two hours either side of 12:21 | 15:57 Tuesday |
On the Tyne, the flood warning says locations most affected will be Newcastle Quayside and the estuary riverside, and that the temporary barrier along Newcastle Quayside would be deployed from 8:00pm on Tuesday evening. Leave that barrier where the agency put it. Do not drive through a gap to reach a car, and do not treat the barrier as a viewing platform. The same warning says to monitor local water levels and to start a flood plan if you have one. It says the message will be updated by 10:00am on Wednesday. Alnmouth’s warning, changed at 17:42, names properties on Alnmouth Riverside Road from 3:30am to 5:30am. Whitley Bay, Cullercoats and Tynemouth names Cullercoats Bay Lifeboat Station from 3:45am to 5:45am. Berwick-upon-Tweed and Tweedmouth names properties exposed to waves from the south, from 3:00am to 5:00am.
Wells Quay expects flooding from 5:00am to 9:00am. The warning names the Quay, East End, and roads joining the Quay between the flood barrier and East End, including Unns Yard, Jicklings Yard, Staithe Street, Croft Yard and Standard Street. It gives a peak at Wells of 3.92 metres above ordnance datum at 7:00am, 0.67 metres above the tide tables, with a Force 5 south-westerly wind. It says flood gates are being closed, and that Wednesday evening’s high tide is not expected to reach a flood warning. Salthouse and east Cley use the same window and the same Wells peak, and name Coast Road in both places plus the marshes. A closed gate is the instruction. Driving around it to “nip through” is how a warning becomes a stranded car.
South Hayling is the afternoon warning, not the North East dawn tide. Flooding is expected for two hours either side of the 12:21 tide. The message says the weather adds 0.22 metres to the tide table, for a forecast of 5.23 metres chart datum, 2.50 metres above ordnance datum, at Portsmouth, with a light Force 3 westerly. It names property at Eastoke corner near the nature reserve, Southwood Road, gardens if splash walls overtop, and beach huts at West Beach near the Inn on the beach. It says Thursday’s tide at 00:45 is forecast 50 centimetres lower. That warning was changed at 15:57 on Tuesday and says it will be updated by 4:00pm on Wednesday. Portsmouth’s own flood message on the same list is an alert, which is the next section, not this warning.
One Humber warning, Kilnsea to Skeffling and Weeton, was changed at 21:59 on Tuesday and still contains a line saying it would be updated by 7:00am on Tuesday. That clock had already passed when the message was changed. Use the live page, not that leftover sentence, to decide whether the warning is still in force. The other Yorkshire warnings changed at the same time say they will be updated by 7:00am on Wednesday.
Where flooding is possible, and where this tide is not the story
A flood alert is the wider net. Flooding is possible. It is not the same sentence as “flooding is expected”. The Tyne and Wear coast alert, changed at 16:53 on Tuesday, covers County Durham, Hartlepool, North Tyneside, South Tyneside and Sunderland. It says flooding is possible from 3:45am to 5:45am, with coastal roads and footpaths near Cullercoats, Seaburn Lower Prom and Hendon Promenade most affected, and it says to avoid coastal roads, footpaths and car parks. A separate Tyne estuary alert, changed at 16:52, says flooding is possible from 2:45am to 5:15am on low-lying land and roads near the quayside, and repeats that the temporary barrier would be deployed on Tuesday evening. The quayside flood warning is the stronger of those two products for the places it names. The Wear estuary alert says flooding is possible from 3:30am to 4:30am on low-lying land and roads near the Wear between Fatfield and the bridge it names as the Queen Alexander Bridge. All three say they will be updated by 10:00am on Wednesday.
Sunderland is on that coast alert. It is not on the 14 flood warnings in the table. Seaburn and Hendon are a reason to stay off the promenade. They are not a reason to treat every inland street in the city as expected to flood. Hull is not printed on those 14 warnings either. Hessle Haven is, from 5:30am to 8:30am, on the north bank of the Humber. If you live in Hull, open the live map. Do not inherit Hessle’s window because the two places share a bus route. York is not on this tide table. The tidal Ouse alert on the same list names the south bank from Airmyn to Whitgift, and the Don and Dutch River from Thorne to Goole, as possible flooding from 6:30am to 8:30am. That is not the centre of York.
Further south, the alert from St Margaret’s at Cliffe to Sandgate says flooding is possible from 9:45am to 1:45pm. It gives a Dover high tide at 11:45 of 3.74 metres above ordnance datum, a surge of about 0.47 metres, a Force 4 westerly and waves of about 1.2 metres, and says further alerts are not expected after this tide. It will be updated by 5:00pm. The tidal Thames alert from Putney Bridge to Teddington Weir, changed at 18:06 on Tuesday, says flooding is possible from 2:30pm to 4:30pm and that flooding of properties is not expected. The same message gives a forecast high tide at Richmond of 4.72 metres above ordnance datum at 3:30am. It names Putney Embankment, Chiswick Mall, Strand on the Green, Thames Bank at Mortlake, Ranelagh Drive, Friars Lane, Water Lane, the Riverside and Embankment at Twickenham, and the towpath below Teddington Lock. A towpath can be wet while a house in Hammersmith is not. Stay off the named path. Do not read the alert as a flood warning for the whole of London.
Two alerts are not this tide at all. Upper River Derwent, Stonethwaite Beck and Derwent Water, and the rivers Brathay, Rothay and Winster, still describe high levels and showers, and they are not marked tidal. Mansbridge and Riverside Park, by contrast, says that on Wednesday no flooding is expected, while tides are higher than usual, with a Southampton forecast of 2.35 metres above ordnance datum after 0.18 metres of weather. An alert that says no flooding is expected is a poor reason to stack sandbags in the hall. It is still a reason to read the update. Of the 42 alerts, 39 were marked tidal. The live page, not this paragraph, decides which of them still applies when you look.
What to do if the warning names your street
GOV.UK’s flood guidance says not to walk, cycle or drive through flood water, to move family, pets and important items upstairs when flooding is expected, and to turn off gas, electricity and water only if it is safe to do so. The warnings in the table already tell you to avoid coastal roads, footpaths and car parks, and to keep off promenades where spray can come over. The checks below stay inside that line. They are not a tour of the sea wall.
- Open Check for flooding and read the product for your postcode. An alert, a warning and a severe warning are different instructions. If you are told to evacuate, that outranks this list. Floodline, on 0345 988 1188, is the 24-hour line printed on the England flood pages. Outside England, use the number your own nation publishes.
- Stay off the quay, the promenade, the slipway and the car park named in the message for the whole window, including a gap when the water looks as if it has paused. A temporary barrier is there to be left alone. A closed flood gate at Wells is there to be left alone.
- Move the car to higher ground only if you can do it without entering flood water and before the window, not by driving through it once the road is already under. GOV.UK says flood water hides open drains and missing covers.
- If you already own door barriers or air-brick covers, fit them from dry ground when a warning says flooding is expected. Do not wade to the front path to fetch them. Cementing an air brick shut is not this morning’s job. Those bricks ventilate a suspended timber floor. Covers for the hours of a warning are a different thing from a permanent seal.
- From an upstairs window, see whether water is on the road as well as at your door. Water that is only indoors, with a dry street, is more likely a pipe. That is the surface-water page once you are safe, not a reason to open the door into a tide.
- Turn utilities off only if you can reach them from a dry floor. Do not touch a switch while you are standing in water. If the street goes dark, in England, Scotland and Wales the free power-cut line is 105. In Northern Ireland, NIE Networks publishes 03457 643 643.
- If you smell gas, leave, avoid switches, and use 0800 111 999 from outside in England, Scotland and Wales. In Northern Ireland, nidirect gives the gas emergency line as 0800 002 001. A petrol generator, a pump or a barbecue run indoors or in a garage to “dry the place” is a carbon monoxide problem. The alarm page is the test for an ordinary day, not the response when the alarm is already sounding. Leave if it sounds.
Do not go down to the promenade to watch the surge, and do not walk through water that has already come over the wall. If someone is in the water or in immediate danger, call 999. On the coast, ask for the Coastguard.
Photograph a waterline from a dry room, for your insurer, once people are safe. Your policy wording decides what is covered. This page does not. Tenants should tell the landlord from safety, and say which rooms are wet and since when. Do not start lifting floors or fitting a flood door as if you owned the building. Owner-occupiers can talk to a builder after the tide has gone. Neither of you needs an account on this site to read a list of businesses, and this site does not send anyone to the door.
After the tide has dropped
Wait until the live warning for your postcode has been removed and the ground you need to walk on is clear. A lower tide later on Wednesday is not, by itself, the all-clear. Wells says Wednesday evening is not expected to reach a flood warning. Hayling says Thursday’s night tide is forecast lower. Other places will get their own update. Spray left on a promenade can still hide a missing cover. Stay off it until the message says the risk has passed and you can see the surface.
Switch nothing electrical back on if a socket, an appliance or the consumer unit has been under water. That visit is an electrician, after the floor is dry. A listing that shows NICEIC or NAPIT is showing a qualification field that is present. It is not a badge this site sells, and it is not a promise about the repair. In England, some new circuits have to be notified under Part P. The Part P note explains that. It does not file the notice for you. Scotland uses its own building standards. Ask which certificate applies where the house is.
A plumber is the right call when a downstairs loo backed up, a gully on your property blocked, or a non-return valve you already had failed to shut. Say whether the tide and the street flooded at the same time. A water company is the right call when the public sewer in the road is what surcharged. Those are two different pipes. Report a sewage smell to the company named on the bill, and keep children and pets out of that room. Do not mop foul water into the kitchen sink and call it seawater.
A builder is the later call when the same door takes the tide every time the quay comes up: a threshold below the path, air bricks that sit in the wash, or a flood gate you do not have. A new flood door or a raised threshold can be building work. The building regulations note is the question of whether the job needs approval. It is not a design for your threshold, and it is not a quote. Pumping water off a property can need a permit. GOV.UK says to check with the Environment Agency before you pump into a river or ditch, with your water company before you pump into a public sewer, and with the highways authority before you pump into a street drain. Running a neighbour’s pump into the road is how a helpful hour blocks a sewer.
Leave the roof out of this call unless water is also coming from above. A tide at the door is not a slipped tile. The roof-leak page is the ceiling stain. Walking the covering to “check while you are wet anyway” is the mistake that page is written to stop. If the boiler will not restart after a power cut, use the power-cut boiler page only when the cupboard is dry and you cannot smell gas. A heating engineer for gas work should be Gas Safe. Ask. This site does not check the card for you.
What to say when you do ring
On a plumbing call, say whether water came under the door, through an air brick, or up a loo, and whether that happened inside the tide window or after the street had drained. Say if you isolated the stopcock, and that you did so only because the floor was dry. Ask whether the person coming covers drains on private property, and whether the first figure is plus VAT. For a foul backup that is yours rather than the water company’s, start with the plumbing list and use the number on the card. If the warning that affected you was the Tyne quay, plumbing in Newcastle is the list. Seaburn and the Wear are Sunderland. Hessle Haven is the Humber side of Hull. South Hayling’s afternoon warning is the reason a Portsmouth number might be the nearer card, once the tide has dropped and the job is a private drain. You place the call. Nobody here forwards it.
On a building call, say how many times the threshold has let tide in, whether a barrier or a gate was already in the street, and whether air bricks were under water. Ask what would need building regulations approval before anyone raises the threshold. Building in Newcastle is the same idea as the plumbing list: you ring the business. An electrical call is separate if sockets or the consumer unit were wet. Say which room, and that you have left the power off.
The cost notes are where pounds for a repair are discussed. They are not a price for pumping out this tide, and they are not your insurer’s decision. The contact-details page shows how to reach a business yourself. Nobody here can tell you the warning has been lifted. That sentence is on the live flood page.
Questions that change the call
Does no Met Office weather warning mean the coast is clear on Wednesday?
No. The Met Office national warnings page shows no weather warning for Wednesday 28 October, and it also says the warnings service may be out of date. A weather warning and a flood warning are different products. The Environment Agency list used for this page held 14 tidal flood warnings that expect flooding on Wednesday’s tide, including Newcastle Quayside from 2:45am to 5:15am. Open Check for flooding again before you treat either list as finished.
Is the whole of Newcastle, Sunderland or Hull inside a flood warning?
No. The flood warning for the Tyne names Newcastle Quayside, Low Walker, Lower Derwenthaugh Industrial Estate and Willington, from 2:45am to 5:15am. Sunderland’s seafront is on a flood alert for the Tyne and Wear coast, which means flooding is possible at Seaburn Lower Prom and Hendon Promenade from 3:45am to 5:45am, not that every Sunderland street is expected to flood. Hull is not printed on the 14 tidal flood warnings. Hessle Haven, on the Humber, is. Use the live map for your own postcode.
The warning still says “tomorrow morning”. Is that Thursday?
No. Those sentences were issued on Tuesday 27 October, so “tomorrow morning” in the text means Wednesday 28 October. The dates printed inside the warnings are 28 October. If you are reading this on Wednesday, the North East and Yorkshire windows are this morning’s tide. South Hayling’s flood warning is the afternoon tide, two hours either side of 12:21. A message that has not been rewritten yet is not a reason to wait until Thursday.
Need a number after the tide has dropped?
Open the list, pick the city, and contact the business yourself.