DISRUPTION to traffic and flooding of roads marred the start of 2016, with several roads closed over the weekend, and residents forced into hurriedly moving their belongings upstairs.

The weather, which was produced by Storm Frank, saw extensive flooding across the Forest and Wye Valley, as torrential rain on New Years Eve brought river levels to their peak. The Wye at Lydbrook broke its banks, and forced the closure of the B4234 road to Ross-on-Wye.

But the Severn, although swollen and breaking out onto agricultural land near Tewkesbury, remained on only ‘Amber’ Met Office alert.

Meanwhile, Chepstow suffered the brunt of the gale force winds that came with the storm, removing roof tiles on a number of properties, and bringing down a tree in Laburnum Way – which luckily only caused minor damage to the properties guttering.

In the same area, Caldicot Country Park saw floods extending over much of its grounds.

The rain produced challenging driving conditions, with one lane of the M4 closed due to flooding, while the gale force winds forced the closure of the M48 Severn bridge in both directions, for several hours.

The Met Office have now downgraded the alerts that were placed on the Wye, and river levels are expected to fall considerably later this week.

•Statistics now in show that last December was the warmest, and wettest, since records began in 1910.