The Floods of Easter 1998

The 1998 Easter river floods brought severe disruption to many low-lying areas in central England. The extent and height of the floods rank the event as the UK’s worst flood disaster since the devastating spring floods of March 1947. In the worst affected regions, including Evesham and Royal Leamington Spa, the floods may be a 1 in 150-year event. Elsewhere, classing the event as a 1 in 50-year occurrence seems accurate. The floods began on Maundy Thursday the 9th April and lasted 6 days. They were caused by torrential downpours on the 8th and 9th April which deposited more than 50mm (2 inches) of rain over a 130km swathe of the south Midlands, stretching from Worcestershire to Cambridgeshire. These rainfall totals are equivalent to nine weeks of rain in just two days. Initial estimates of insurance losses suggest a figure of around £500-700 million which would make the event the UK’s fourth largest weather insurance loss on record. This loss is comparable to the £600 million insured loss from the catastrophic July 1997 floods in Central and Eastern Europe.