This Landsat 8 satellite image shows Somerset Levels under normal conditions on Nov. 4, 2013.
A storm wave dropped 15 inches of rain on southern England December 2013-January 2014”the wettest two-month period on record since 1910. The rain and flooding continued into February.
The Advanced Land Imager on NASA's Earth-Observing-1 satellite acquired this image of flooding in Somerset Levels on Feb. 16, 2014.
Since January 2014, in a low-lying tract of land in southwestern England known as Somerset Levels, both the River Parrett and River Tone spilled over their banks and flooded sections of the Levels. By mid-February, an estimated 17,000 hectares (66 square miles) and 150 homes were swamped.
On Feb. 16, brown, sediment-laden water covered large tracts of farmland. While the town of Bridgewater was still dry, villages such as Moorland, Westonzoyland, Burrowbridge and Othery were either flooded or nearly so.
Image courtesy of NASA.
