A WATERED down Storm Jonas still delivered almost two inches of rain across East Hampshire in a virtually unbroken 24-hour deluge last week.

As Jonas blew in from the Gulf Coast in America to the north-eastern New England states, more than 42 inches of snow fell in some places, leaving 28 people dead in its wake. But as it crossed the Atlantic, warm air turned the snow into rain.

Met Office forecaster Charles Powell said:”‘The remnants of the snow storm were rain.” Flood alerts were issued across the UK by the Environment Agency, including one for the Rother north of Liss, but the rain and strong winds left East Hampshire undamaged, with just localised flooding on fields and on some roads, such as at the Dragon Street junction with High Street in Petersfield (pictured last Wednesday morning).

But despite the wet and windy weather, the daytime temperature was one of the warmest on record. The maximum temperature of 16.5C was close to the 18.3C recorded in 2003 for the highest January temperature. Mr Powell described it as “one of the warmest days on record for January”. Overnight last Wednesday may have been one of the warmest January nights ever as temperatures stayed around 13C.