Flooding in Boscastle and North Cornwall, August 2004

On 16 August 2004 an extreme rainfall event took place near the north Cornwall coast when up to 200 mm of rain fell in a period of approximately 5 hours.. This rainfall led to severe flooding in the Valency and Crackington Stream catchments and serious flooding on the Rivers Ottery and Neet. This report describes the rainfall, and the flooding caused by the event. It was produced for the Environment Agency by HR Wallingford Ltd (HRW) with analyses of the meteorological, hydrological and hydraulic aspects of the event being undertaken by the UK Met Office (UKMO), the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Wallingford (CEH) and HR Wallingford, respectively. Field work and data collection for the Valency and Crackington Stream catchments were carried out by Halcrow and Royal Haskoning, respectively.