91Èȱ¬

I'm very grateful to local microlight pilot Steve Slade, who has sent me some spectacular photos taken above the River Severn in Gloucestershire.

You might have seen some of Steve's aerial imagesÌýof our regionÌýon 91Èȱ¬ Points West weather bulletins - I tend to use them quite regularly on-air (see here for instructions how to send photos to us).

On Sunday (24 January), Steve flew his microlight above the just west of Gloucester, taking a series of photos showing just how the mighty riverÌýhas spread out across a fairly broad rural area.

Of course, there's been a large volume of water accumulating in the catchment over recent days, thanks to a combination of melting snow and some spells of rain. The net result - not least from many smaller streams andÌýbrooks bursting their banks too -Ìýis very clear from Steve's pictures. Thankfully, the flooding has been a fairly slow process without any impact on major urban areas.

However, you can see various farms and smaller rural hamlets have become almost encircled by the rising waters - if you are reading this from any of the affected areas, do share your experiences here on the blog. With a largely dry spell of weatherÌýbetween now and late Wednesday,ÌýI'd imagineÌýthe situationÌýwill gradually ease, but I'll be interested to hear the expert views of any hydrologists out there!

If you have concerns about flood risk, the is always at hand and regularly updated with the status of every river, stream and brook, no matter how small.

Later this week, we will again seeÌýa cold northerly influence re-assert itself across the British Isles, bringing the risk - albeit currently very uncertain - of some rain, sleet and snow descending southeastwards into parts of the West Country later on Thursday and into Friday.

It's a complex weather set-up into that period and quite different to the that brought us snowfall on the past three occasions. I'll keep you up-to-date with our evolving forecasting thoughts here on the blog.

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