Heavy flooding is expected to continue today across the United Kingdom with the arrival of "Winter Storm Hercules". The storm system has left behind record-breaking low temperatures in the US.
27ft swells and 70mph winds have been reported at Land's End in Cornwall in the country's Southwest. Big wave surfers have been chasing Hercules' across the Atlantic, and are now amassing at coastal towns and beaches.
UK environment secretary Owen Paterson said in a statement that seven people had died in the UK as a result of the heavy rains and flooding since 23 December.
340 separate flood warnings have been issued by the UK Environment Agency across the country, including South Wiltshire, Dorset, Oxfordshire, and the river Thames.
Many roads have been closed and trains delayed or cancelled, as the countries transportation network has been badly disrupted.
Hercules' drenched Northwest England with over an inch of rainfall as it spread across the country. Although a different storm then that which plagued American cities such as Boston, New York, and Washington DC with heavy snow and extreme cold weather, Hercules' is expected to provide additional misery to the UK after nearly two weeks of incessant rainfall.
Nicola Maxey, a Met Office forecaster said: "The weather system we are experiencing has come across from America but it has changed to such a degree that it is not the same beast that it was."
Torrential rain and huge waves are the result of the storm warming as it crossed the Atlantic the forecaster added. The intensity of the storm is expected to eventually blow itself out, thus providing a welcome dry spell in the coming days.
16 deaths were reported in the US due to the coldest recorded temperatures for the past 20 years.
The UK Environment Agency estimates over 220 properties have been damaged by flooding, and more than 200,000 homes have required protection from the rising waters.
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