Fortunately it is very unusual for the monitoring station in the middle of Shipston to go over 3 metres twice in a few days due to very heavy rainfall. 

This flooding gave many ‘at risk residents’, the Town Council and its contractors a lot of  stress over the festive season. 

Following a wet week before Christmas, the River Stour peaked at 3.69m in Shipston at 0200 hrs on Xmas Eve after 30 mm of rain fell widely across the catchment on the previous day, the 23rd December.

A further 15mm of rain also fell on Boxing night which resulted in the Stour reaching a second peak of 3.05 metres at 1030 hrs on the 27th. See full chart below:

The Environment Agency issued telephone flood warnings/alerts to the ‘signed up residents’ on both occasions. SAFAG’s 700 natural flood management interventions definitely helped slow the flow and hold back the significant flood waters in the dozens of tributaries in the upper catchments. 

The SAFAG team are now currently checking many of  the farms/estates in the catchment to ensure that the dams, bunds, ponds etc are still in good condition, following the heavy deluge and the consequent flooding of our local area.

The River Stour is now receding back to its normal winter levels.