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The Met Office has issued a series of weather warnings across the United Kingdom due to the approaching Storm Chandra, including an amber warning for rain along the south coast of the South West Peninsula:

The Environment Agency has issued a series of flood alerts across the whole of Devon and Cornwall:

The first significant band of rain has soaked Cornwall and has now reached us here in West Devon:

This evening the Met Office has posted an animated forecast, showing the expected track of Storm Chandra:

We are expecting plenty of sewage pollution around our coasts!

Tonight there are active combined sewer overflows all around the coast of South West England:

In particular, the CSO at our local big beach surf break at Widemouth Bay has been active since 18:38:

This morning there are still more CSOs that have been active overnight, including Crackington Haven and Trebarwith Strand on the nearby shore of North Cornwall. Sewage is still flowing into the sea at our closest beach, Widemouth Bay.

Tonight the CSO at Widemouth Bay is still active. Further down the coast of North Cornwall, the St. Merryn CSO near Harlyn has been operating continuously since January 20th. On the south coast of Devon the Forder Valley Road CSO in Plymouth has been on the go since early morning on the 21st. The Maer Road CSO in Exmouth has been active for a “mere” 30 hours:

This morning the multi-day CSO activations at Harlyn, Plymouth and Exmouth are continuing:

The Madeira Drive pumping station stopped overflowing at some point overnight, then started again briefly this morning. However, from the information available on South West Water’s web site it’s impossible to determine when:

The sewage overflows at St. Merryn, Plymouth and Exmouth are continuing tonight. The Widemouth Bay CSO had another brief burst of activity this afternoon:

Earlier today the Met Office published an article about the heavy rain from Storm Chandra:

Storm Chandra formed from a deepening Atlantic low that tracked eastwards, drawing in a vigorous fetch of moist air from the southwest. As it neared the UK the system intensified, bringing unusually strong easterly winds to parts of Northern Ireland, as well as strong gusty winds to the Isles of Scilly, Cornwall and southwestern Wales which had already suffered impacts from Storm Goretti.

Storm Chandra also pushed persistent and heavy rainfall into parts of Dorset, Somerset and Devon. An Amber warning for rain reflected the concerns around the expected rainfall accumulations.

Data from the Storm Chandra provides a detailed picture of rainfall totals between 26 January 12:00 and 27 January 23:59. The standout theme is the concentration of the highest totals in Devon and Cornwall, with some exceptional accumulations across Dartmoor.

A number of sites exceeded 60 mm, with the wettest locations seeing over 110 mm of rain:

• White Barrow, Devon – 115.1 mm
  The highest total recorded during Storm Chandra, with sustained heavy rainfall through the morning of 27 January.
• Dartmoor Training Centre, Devon – 75.7 mm,
• Brookfield Farm, Devon – 73 mm,
• Princetown Prison, Devon – 68.2 mm,
• Bellever, Dartmoor – 67.6 mm,

Across Dorset, Devon and Cornwall, dozens of gauges recorded 50–65 mm of rain. Locations such as Compton Abbas Airfield (62.7 mm), Stopgate (61.4 mm), Bastreet (61 mm) and Lee Moor (60.8 mm) reveal that the event’s impacts were not limited to high ground alone.

The multi-day sewage “spills” at Harlyn and Plymouth continue, although the number of recently active CSOs shown on South West Water’s WaterFit Live web site is slowly reducing. However more heavy rain is forecast for later today:

The overflow at Exmouth finished at some point overnight. It’s impossible to tell when using WaterFit Live though, because the only information available on there shows a much shorter CSO activation early this morning. Our own database of CSO activations reveals the truth:

With a brief gap the Maer Road CSO was active from the afternoon of January 20th until the early morning of the 26th, and again from the early evening of the 26th until early this morning.

Various parts of South West Water’s WaterFit Live web site seem to be inaccessible this morning so here’s the Water UK equivalent of the overview page:

As you can see, it shows all combined sewer overflows, not only those that are deemed to affect bathing beaches. The multi-day “spills” at Plymouth and Harlyn continue, and two CSOs in Exmouth are active once again:

Looking now at other surfing beaches along the north coast, CSOs at Mawgan Porth and Trevaunance Cove at St. Agnes have both been spilling sewage into the ocean since January 23rd. The infamous Woolacombe “poo pipe” went into action on January 26th

Extending our view to inland overflows with the aid of the Water UK map, our closest CSO at Halwill has been overflowing into the River Carey since yesterday evening:

A bit further afield, numerous overflows are currently discharging sewage into the River Exe and the River Taw. One CSO in Exton has been continuously active since January 11th. Another in Barnstaple has been active since January 22nd:

Presumably it goes without saying that there is another Met Office warning for heavy rain across Devon and Cornwall today and overnight?

This morning all the combined sewer overflows that have been mentioned above are active, with the addition of the CSO at Westward Ho!:

To be continued…