Storm overflows surge to five times normal rate as thunderstorms hit England and Wales

Wayne's instruments recorded 88 storm overflows discharging across England and Wales at an hour when the normal figure is 18 — close to five times the expected rate. The reporting material does not itself carry overflow-count data, but it does establish a clear and sufficient weather cause for a spike of this kind, according to [1] and [2]. West Midlands Fire Service confirmed it was called to "significant flooding" in Birmingham after a flood warning was issued for the Perry Barr area, with crews responding to incidents around Curbar Road, Thornbridge Avenue and Haddon Road, according to [1]. The service asked the public to avoid the area; Birmingham City Council urged people not to walk, cycle or drive through flood water, according to [1]. The Environment Agency had issued 22 flooding alerts across the Midlands and South East, according to [1]. The Met Office warned of 50–75mm of rain in parts on Thursday, with the South East seeing 30–40mm and hail up to 1–2cm, and some areas facing more than 75mm over 12 hours, according to [1]. Met Office forecaster Craig Snell described a band of heavy, thundery rain crossing the UK and said the Midlands and Wales were in for "quite a wet day", according to [1]. Separately, [2] reports a near-identical pattern on Wednesday 26 August and Thursday 27 August: yellow thunderstorm warnings covering London, the South East, the Midlands, East Anglia, parts of the North West and South West, and large parts of Wales, with rainfall of 20–30mm in under an hour and up to 40–50mm within two to three hours forecast — enough, the Met Office said, to overwhelm drainage systems and cause surface water flooding, according to [2]. A second warning from Thursday morning covered a further band of storms, with up to 50mm expected over 12 hours in places, according to [2]. Both sources stress that this rain followed weeks of exceptional heat and dryness — drought had been declared across nearly three-quarters of England and the whole of Wales, according to [1], after the Met Office said the UK was on course for its hottest summer on record, with temperatures hitting 38.1C in London, according to [1]. Parched ground sheds rainfall fast rather than absorbing it, and [2] notes explicitly that heavy rain arriving after prolonged drought creates "a particularly difficult combination of conditions" for drainage and flooding. Taken together, the material supports a plausible and largely confirmed explanation for the overflow spike: intense, short-duration rainfall — of the kind both sources describe hitting England and Wales on back-to-back days — landing on drought-baked catchments that cannot absorb it, pushing sewer and drainage networks into surcharge and triggering permitted storm discharges. Neither source gives overflow operator names, specific outfall locations, or official confirmation tying today's 88-discharge count to a named storm event, so that link should be treated as likely rather than proven. What to watch: whether water companies or the Environment Agency confirm which overflows fired and for how long, and whether the overflow count falls back toward the baseline of 18 as the rain clears north through Friday and the weekend, per the Met Office's forecast in [1].