On this day in history : 16th August 1952 – One of the worst flash floods ever to occur in Britain sweeps its way through the North Devon village of Lynmouth….
Torrential rainfall deposited 9 inches of rain on already saturated soil…. Over 100 buildings were destroyed or severely damaged – as were 28 bridges…. 38 cars were washed out to sea and 420 people lost their homes – but even more tragically – 34 lost their lives….
Following the flood controversy arose as to whether it had been caused by secret cloud seeding which had been carried out by the RAF between 1949 and 1952…. Cloud seeding is a method of weather modification aimed at altering the type of precipitation falling from clouds….
A 2001 BBC radio documentary fuelled speculation that the flood was linked to Project Cumulus – as the disaster happened just days after the RAF had been performing rain making experiments over Southern England…. However meteorologists deny this could have caused the flooding….
Cottage Capers 