Umbrellas are useful when it rains!

Torrential downpours have caused rivers to burst their banks, roads have been closed and many people have been evacuated from their homes because of the floods.

The worst hit area seems to be the north of England. There have even been fatalities as people got stuck in the rain or were washed away by the floodwaters.

Flood warnings have been issued in many parts of the UK and it is said that over a month's worth of rain has fallen in just the last couple of days.

The rain has also caused chaos at some of Britain's famous June events. The Glastonbury festival is a four-day-long outdoor music festival and while it is traditionally quite rainy and muddy there, this year was particularly bad.

Everyone was wearing wellies and there have been many pictures in the newspapers of people covered from head to toe in mud. It rained throughout the festival and with more than 170,000 revellers walking around and camping on the grounds, it didn't take long for the site to turn into a mud bath.

June also sees the start of the Wimbledon tennis tournament. The start of play on the first day was delayed by half an hour or so because of the rain and had to be halted again mid-afternoon for a couple of hours. There are no floods in the London region though, just frequent showers.

So while the British would like to have glorious sunshine during the summer months, the rain continues to fall in most areas. People in Britain are used to having unpredictable weather – cold rainy summer days and warmer winter months. However this amount of rain and devastation is even more unexpected.

People can only hope that the rain will stop soon and the sun will come out, so they can eventually start to enjoy a nicer summer.

torrential downpours  暴雨；倾盆大雨
evacuated 疏散
worst hit 受打击最严重的
washed away 被冲走
a month's worth 够用(值)一个月的
muddy 泥泞的
revellers 喜欢凑热闹的人
delayed 被拖延
frequent showers 经常性的阵雨
unpredictable 难预测的
 to burst their banks 决堤
floods 洪水
fatalities 死亡(事故)
issued 发布
chaos 混乱
wellies 惠灵顿长靴
a mud bath 泥澡
halted 停顿；停止
glorious sunshine 灿烂的阳光
devastation 毁灭性的破坏