The strong winds and torrential rains of Storm Babet made landfall on 18 October 2023. Storm Babet was named after a woman who visited a Dutch weather agency KMNI open day and asked for her name to be used “because [she] was born during a storm.”
Discover the Meteorological Insights
What was the human impact?
• 7 killed
• 2,146 properties flooded
• 100,000 people affected by power cuts
Most affected: East Scotland, Derbyshire, North Wales, County Cork.
Environment Agency (EA) confirmed 100,000 properties were protected with 20 high-volume pumps and five small-volume pumps deployed across several sites. EA’s flood warning service sent out over 300,000 messages by email, telephone and text during Storm Babet.
The impact on businesses
Inchcape JLR dealership in Derby, which opened in 2019 on the city’s former cattle market, closed due to damage
caused by the River Derwent flooding.
It was reported that despite Environment Agency concerns the “dealership would end up under two metres of water – or more – in a ‘one in 100-year’ flood,” Derby City Council had approved the development.
We pulled an Argyll Environmental report on the dealership’s site, and the data is clear: the development site was at moderate to high risk of flooding with moderate groundwater, surface pluvial and other factors putting it at risk of flooding.
There is even considerable history of flooding in this location, which would make insuring the plot challenging– and certainly expensive.