Flood history in Carmarthenshire

Carmarthen saw a large fluvial event coincide with a tidal event. There was widespread flooding to a depth of 1.5metres and the railway station flooded for the first time.

In Carmarthen, there was significant flooding believed to be the same as the 1987 event. Flood water depths of 3-metres were observed in Pensarn.

The Pensarn flood wall in Carmarthen overtopped. Private dwellings and business premises on both sides of Pensarn Road flooded. Business premises and residential properties flooded along Old Llangunnor Road. Post Office and business premises flooded along Station Road and Steven’s Way.

The Pensarn flood wall overtopped again. Flood depth believed to be about 0.17 metres lower than 1979. Extensive flooding and damage to properties along Old Station Road (6 properties), Old Llangunnor Road (14 properties), Pensarn (13 properties), Carmarthen Quay (4 properties) and Station Road (4 properties). An estimated total of 41 properties were flooded during this event.

October 1987 saw the worst flooding on record. Overtopping continued for approximately 15hrs with a maximum height of about 0.23 metres above the wall crest with approximately 65 properties flooded at Pensarn.

Significant flooding in Towy catchment with areas of Carmarthen and Abergwili among those worst affected.

October 2004 saw the highest recorded flood event post completion of the flood defences in Pensarn. This prevented flooding from the Towy, but surface water trapped on the landward and was unable to discharge. This resulting in surface water flooding at Pensarn Road and Stephens Way.

Sea flooding affected approximately 11 properties in Laugharne, and 30-40 caravans flooded in a Caravan Park in Carmarthen Bay.

The village of Llanddowror was flooded from the river Hydfron, a tributary of the Taf. Approximately 30 properties were adversely impacted by the event.

Significant flooding in Llanelli included Llangennech, Bynea and Trostre.

On the 4th November 2012 nine adults and six children had to be rescued from a caravan in Pendine. Around 60 caravans were surrounded by water. Mid and West Wales fire and rescue service used a boat as part of the operation. Around 40 others were moved by the park owners and all those involved have been rehoused in other caravans on higher ground.

On the 24th December 2012 80 No. flood related calls were received between 8:00am and 7pm on Saturday with over 95% of calls concerning the Llanelli area. The Operations Manager at CCC commented that ‘the extent of flooding along Trostre Retail Park access road was the worst I’ve seen in the past 6 years with access to the western car park totally cut off’.

On the 25th January 2012 heavy rain on Friday afternoon and evening together with a rise in temperature caused accelerated snowmelt and resulted in flooding in several locations. Kidwelly was hardest hit with properties on New Street and Water Street being flooded internally.

St Judes Storm battered the south coast and St Jude caused chaos across parts of Europe. Four people died after the storm hit Britain, leading to 625,000 homes losing power, and rail and flight cancellations.

Thousands of people were evacuated and England's east coast experienced the worst tidal surge in 60 years. December 2013 turned out to be the stormiest since 1969.

The combination of high tides, strong winds and large waves, delivered conditions that caused the worst sea flooding along the coastline for over 15 years. Properties were affected all along the coast but particularly in Llangennech, Llansteffan, Carmarthen Quay, Laugharne. In Carmarthen Bay approximately 70 caravans were affected.

On the 24-27 January 2014, flooding on the Somerset levels resulted in a major incident being declared.

On the 8th October 2014 an Atlantic depression and high tides resulting in coastal flooding across Carmarthenshire. Waves were recorded breaking over the sea wall at Pendine.

On the 30th December 2015 approx. 80 No. weather related incidents including property and highway flooding and blocked gullies were received by the CCC out of hours teams. This was followed on the 31st December by another 40 incidents.

On the 3rd January 2016 a week of bad weather culminated in another 45 weather related incidents. Homes and business in the Llanelli area suffered flooding and highways were closed.

On the 1st August 2016 and through the night into Tuesday the Llanelli area had some significant flooding. Properties along Sandy Road and Beach Road in Llanelli were most significantly affected along with dwellings at Glyncoed Terrace, Halfway, Dafen, Llanelli.

Ex hurricane Ophelia brought strong winds of 70-80mph to our coasts. There was average disruption caused in Carmarthenshire but three people were killed in Ireland by a falling tree.

Storm Callum saw the highest recoded river levels since 1987. There was significant flooding to Pensarn and the NRW Llangynnor flood wall in Carmarthen overtopped resulting in business flooding to depths in excess of 1.5-metres.

Over 80 commercial and residential properties were flooding internally and 100s were flooded externally. There was significant disruption to the transport infrastructure in the Towy and Teifi valleys and through Carmarthen Town and sadly one man died in a landslide on the A484 at Cwmduad.

On the 8th February 2019 Storm Erik brought heavy rain and strong winds to Carmarthenshire and the south west. While there were fatalities in both Devon and West Wales from falling trees, there were only a handful of issues reported in Carmarthenshire.

3-4 March 2019 Storm Freya brought trees down across the county and there were a dozen emergency calls to Highways.

Storm Hannah brought heavy rain and wind and a rare red weather warning for southwest Ireland. 1000’s of homes in Wales lost power, but no major disruption in Carmarthenshire.

The Welsh Coastal Path at Morfa Bucas, Llanelli finally succumbed to coastal erosion. While still passible on foot with care, it was damaged beyond repair and the decision taken to re-route the path inland.

Almost a year to the day after Storm Callum, significant rainfall resulted in the River Teifi flooding again. An amber warning was issued by the Met Office and residents were evacuated from Llanybydder and Pont Tyweli. The river came within inches of causing another significant flooding incident but fortunately, water levels fell away just before that threshold was met.

Storm Atiyah.

On the 13th January 2020, Storm Brendan.

On the 8th February, Storm Ciara.

On the 15th February 2020, Storm Dennis was the most significant flood incident to affect Wales since the December 1979 floods. Many locations were affected across the Southwest Wales Place and led to 63 properties flooding in Carmarthenshire and significant disruption to.

On the 28th February 2020, Storm Jorge

On the 19th August 2020, Storm Ellen.

On the 25th August 2020 Storm Francis.

Storm Alexa.

Met office report here

Storm Aiden. 

Met office report here

The 26-17th December 2020, Storm Bella 

met office report here 

On the 19th January 2021, Storm Christoph saw river levels on the Towy fall before Pensarn was flooded. Surface water trapped an unable to escape to the river flowed through the drainage systems to Pensarn where the road and businesses were flooded. 150 properties flooding across Wales including communities and isolated villages across South West Wales. 

met office report 

On the 19th February 2021 there was an amber warning, full mobilisation of emergency planning protocols. 

During 2 flooding events in Kidwelly in October 2021, 41 residential dwellings and 7 businesses suffered internal flooding. A full investigation into this event is available.

Kidwelly flood investigation report

On the 26th November 2021, Storm Anwen. Red wind warning for North East England. 

On the 7th December 2021, Storm Barra. 

met office report

On the 29th January 2022, Storm Malik and Corrie arrived back to back no significant affects in Carmarthenshire as this storm came from the north sea, but it was ranked in the top ten storms to hit the UK by the Met Office.

met office report

On the 16th February 2022 Storm Dudley, Eunice and Franklin arrived within the space of one week and two rare red warnings were issued for wind, albeit not in Carmarthenshire. The amber warning for wind resulted in a dozen FCERM incidents were reported.

Storm Eunice brought major weather impacts. Four people died in the UK and Ireland as a result of falling trees. Over a million homes were left without power as strong winds brought down trees, with ongoing power cuts lasting several days. Schools and businesses were closed across Wales and there was major transport disruption, with trains cancelled, roads were blocked by fallen trees and there were a number of overturned lorries on the M4. Several hundred flights in the UK were cancelled and many aircraft struggled to land in the strong winds.

met office report 

2022 was a relatively calm year with only 114 FCERM incidents recoded in total with 34 of these being internal property flooding.

On the 18th October 2023, Storm Babet brought significant flooding to Scotland and Northern England but missed Carmarthenshire. It was the third wettest 3-day period on record with at least seven people reported to have died as a result of the storm. In Scotland, hundreds of homes and businesses were flooded and it was reported that over 1000 homes in England were also affected by flooding with 500 homes in Retford (Nottinghamshire) being evacuated.

met office report

November 2023, Storm Ciaran and Debi. There were significant issues in Carmarthenshire up to 5-days before these storms and for the days preceding them. In total there were 28 residential properties and 3 commercials that reported internal flooding. The communities of Kidwelly, Ferryside, Laugharne, Pontyberem and Bronwedd were worst hit.

met office report

December 2023 Storms Elin and Fergus resulted in only minor issues in Carmarthenshire and a dozen flooding incidents were recorded by the FCERM team.

met office report

December 2023 and January 2024 Storm Gerret and Storm Henk. Significant flooding in Carmarthenshire post Storm Gerret on the 30th December following two very wet weeks. There was 9.7mm of rain in a single hour and total rainfall of 16mm in 4 hours that afternoon.

On the 2nd January 2024 Storm Henk brought an almost identical storm.
The communities of Ferryside and Llansteffan suffered the worst with over 30 dwellings being flooded in Llansteffan.