Belfast: Heavy rain caused flooding across city and lifted manhole covers

Police warned drivers of flooding in the Peter’s Hill and Townsend Street areas, while Fortwilliam Park and the Ballysillan Road had manhole covers lifting due to heavy rainfall.
Police urged drivers to avoid these areas and seek alternative routes where possible.

The Met Office said a cold front passed quickly over Northern Ireland from north west to south east, starting at dawn on Saturday morning, as it predicted. This brought intense local rainfall of up to 20mm in any one place in as little as 20 minutes.

In rural areas this will have had little impact but in an urban area like Belfast with lots of concrete and tarmac, the rain will not have drained away as quickly, thus resulting in localised flooding, the forecaster said.