Floods in high places

[mattc]

Flooding should be down in river valleys. Not up hills. Here's my highest flood sign seen this year:

Westridge Green (Berkshire, betwixt Aldworth & Goring), about 159m ASL


I'm sure someone can beat that ...

[Wowbagger]

Some years ago my sis-in-law was the victim of a flash flood. They live on the 1000' contour just south of Burnley. The flooding filled their cattle grid with shale and slate and all the local sheep took advantage of their new-found access to sis-in-law's garden.

[teethgrinder]

When I was touring the USA, I saw news reports of flooding in Las Vegas a few days before I was going to arrive there.
Las Vegas is about 2000 ft above sea level. It's also about 130 miles from Furnace Creek in Death Valley, which is one of the hottest places on Earth.

[bobb]

How about the Okavango delta? That's about 3000 feet above sea level.

You would have thought they'd have sorted that out by now - I mean it floods every year without fail FFS 

[EMnut]

have you ridden down the foot under water road from Steventon to Sutton Courtney? Out at sparrowfart last week, and came across hi-viz workmen blocking off Drayton road. Road on down the hill where the road was dry, and then at the top near Sustrans 5, found the road underwater...

[mattc]

have you ridden down the foot under water road from Steventon to Sutton Courtney? Out at sparrowfart last week, and came across hi-viz workmen blocking off Drayton road. Road on down the hill where the road was dry, and then at the top near Sustrans 5, found the road underwater...

Yes. (I rode through it on Wed, when the road was closed but just about passable á velo.)

I assume that happened cos the thames is nearer the bit that flooded i.e. the water never reached the lower dip to the west. Anyway, it was open this evening And it's considerably below 159m, so is not in the running!

(Unlike the other posts, which technically do qualify, but I kinda hoped that "in the UK, in 2014" was quite strongly implied ... )

[Jasmine]

Llanberis high street was flooded around New Year, although not as bad as the floods there last year.  Llanberis is apparently 137m above sea level. Very heavy rain tends to run off the mountain quite quickly.  There's also a lake there which can flood, but tends not to be the main factor.

[Vince]

I can go to the other extreme. Before Christmas a lake had over flowed between Delft and Schipluiden, which is probably -3m ASL

[mcshroom]

I'm pretty certain there will be higher ones in the Highlands and Snowdonia, but here in the Lakes there are  permanent tarns quite high up the fells, such as Broad Crag Tarn at about 820m ASL

[Efrogwr]

The highest I've ever seen was at 240m ASL in Rhosgadfan (south of Caernarfon).

[Regulator]

Not sure what the elevation is (but it's up a hill) and that the flood about 100 metres from where I am sitting right now in Shropshire....

In fact, I can think of three spots on my commute into work, all of which are at the top of or part way up hills/rises, which have permanent 'Flood' warning signs.

[Pancho]

The Environment Agency have added surface water flooding to their flood maps. It's  high resolution (locate your local big puddles) and, round here at least very accurate.

Go to their flood maps and use the drop down to select "surface water" rather than river or sea.

[CrazyEnglishTriathlete]

The highest floods I've seen in the UK were on Beinn Dearg near Ullapool.  The Eas Fionn waterfall was about 10m wide at the top (altitude 50m) despite only being 4km downstream from its source and the stalkers path was running water.  Several times I had to divert to find away across side streams that flood the path too forcefully to wade and the highest point where the stream was in flood was about 800m.

After climbing Cona Mheall and Beinn Dearg by map and compass bearing gave up on the idea of Meall nan Ceapraichean and headed back down Gleann na Squaib to the car.  Put the heating full on (my '83 vintage Audi 80 could flood the floorwell with hot air) and had half-dried my feet by the time I got to Ullapool for a cup of tea, by which time the sun had come out.

I am sure there are floods up in the Himalaya at 5000m+