A CRUCIAL weather warning system that predicts where storms will hit next does not cover Cumbria, it has been revealed.

If it had, the county could have been better prepared for Storm Desmond – which caused last winter’s devastating floods. Cumbria County Council leader Stewart Young is calling for an urgent review of the radar system, which is used by meteorologists to predict exactly when and where a weather front will hit.

He said the gap in coverage has come to light following December’s floods. “The relevant agencies didn’t actually receive a severe weather warning,” he explained.

Although it wouldn’t have stopped the storm, it could have allowed local communities to respond earlier, he said. Speaking at the authority’s cabinet meeting, Mr Young explained: “It has emerged that the Met Office has a network of radar stations around the country that monitor weather fronts and feed into the forecast.

“As far as England and Wales are concerned, there are a couple of places that seem to be black spots. There is a radar station in Northern Ireland that sees storms coming from the Atlantic. But as it moves over the sea towards Cumbria it loses track. What that means is we don’t exactly know where it’s going to go.

“After Storm Desmond we had Eva and Frank and at first we thought they were heading straight for us. We were very worried.”

The current system provides only low resolution radar data over the Irish Sea and much of Cumbria. As the majority of rain approaches Cumbria from the west, the lower resolution data provides a limited picture of what is coming in over the Irish Sea, or what may be developing as it crosses.

Mr Young said as it happened the later storms went in different directions.

He added while that was a relief for Cumbria, they went on to cause major problems in southern Scotland and York, which could also have had more warning if the r4adar system covered Cumbria.

He said it was complicated, as Cumbria’s hills made the county difficult to cover, but wants a solution to be found.

“I believe it’s a very important point for us in Cumbria. Whether they should have a radar station on the Isle of Man I do not know, but it can’t be acceptable at the moment that Cumbria, with our bad weather, do not have the advantage of radar coverage.”