Flash flooding impacts parts of Derry city centre
Fire & Rescue officers had to be drafted in after torrential downpours led to severe flooding in parts of Derry city centre and other areas on Saturday.
Foyle Road and the lower deck of Craigavon bridge were once again among the areas worst affected this time, with sandbags being used up against shop fronts and other businesses as drains were unable to clear the rain waters.
Parts of the road had to be closed off for a time as Northern Ireland Fire & Rescue crews worked to pump the water from the busy city centre stretch that runs parallel with the river walkway.
Earlier, a number of vehicles, including a bus, were seen trying to navigate through the floodwaters.
The torrential rainfall affected various parts of the north west and its arrival marked an abrupt end to the spell of warm and dry spring weather over the two weeks previous.
Concerns have repeatedly been raised over flooding along Foyle Road and other low lying areas in and around the city centre in Derry, with calls for urgent remedial works to improve drainage in light of storms becoming more frequent across the region.
Back in December the same stretch of Foyle Road was also badly affected by flooding leading to hazardous conditions for motorists and pedestrians and impacting businesses and residents in the vicinity.
At this stage there is no suggestion that the torrential downpours witnessed at the weekend will be repeated in the coming days, with the Met Office forecasting a mainly dry few days for Tuesday and Wednesday, while also cautioning that there will be “showers arriving from the west” later in the week and forecasting “showers or longer spells of rain on Thursday and Friday”.
Temperatures will be cooler throughout this week, with highs of between 12 and 14 degrees Celsius and getting colder by night with temperatures dipping to between 2 and 5 degrees Celsius.
It also looks unlikely we will see a return to warmer conditions over the coming weeks, with the Met Office forecasting for the period up to mid-May: “There is a lot of uncertainty in the evolution through this period, more so than normal, but overall it would appear that a rather unsettled theme is most likely.”