A weather warning and a string of flood alerts are in place for Cumbria.

  • St Joseph's School in Cockermouth is shut this morning due to high winds. 

The fascias on the school building are coming off, says Cumbria County Council.

  • St Herbert's School is closing early.
  • Keswick School will close early.
  • Borrowdale Primary School is closed. 
  • Bassenthwaite school is closed due to a lack of electric.
  • Braithwaite Primary School is closed due to a lack of sufficient staff. It says it hopes to open its doors until 3.15pm today to provide refreshments for anyone affected by flooding in the village. 

Whinlatter Forest has just tweeted that Whinlatter has closed due to high winds. 

Flooded roads: 

  • Borrowdale Road is flooded. 
  • Road closed in both directions between Camerton junction and Great Broughton junction due to a landslip.

The railway line between Workington and Whitehaven is closed due to a landslip.

The Environment Agency is warning people to be prepared as heavy rain means flooding is possible around the following areas:

  • Rivers Cocker, Marron and Derwent
  • Upper River Derwent, Stonethwaite Beck and Derwentwater
  • Rivers Greta, St Johns Beck and Bassenthwaite Lake 

Heavy, persistent rain is forecast across the county for at least nine hours today along with gale force winds. 

The Environment Agency says it is dealing with reports of flooding on roads in Keswick from Cuddy Beck and checking there are no blockages.

It said flooding of some properties cannot be ruled out.

A spokesman said: "River and lake levels are normal for the time of year so there is some capacity but catchments are wet and following the December floods are likely to respond quickly to rainfall particularly in the smaller upland rivers and streams.

"Some localised flooding and minor impacts can be expected on Tuesday and Wednesday with flooding of low lying land and roads leading to some travel disruption."

River levels are expected to peak on Wednesday, while tides will reach their peak at lunchtime today.

With the additional surge and strong winds some more flood alerts and warnings may be issued for the Cumbria coast.

The Met Office has also issued a yellow alert which is valid until 3pm tomorrow.

Persistent and sometimes heavy rain is likely to lead to river flooding and standing water on roads, it says.

It warns that many parts of the county could see 50-100mm of rain.

However, on exposed upland areas,that could rise to between 150-200mm. 

It said: "There remains some uncertainty with the exact location of the areas at risk of heaviest rain, and as such, this warning will be updated in the coming days as confidence increases."

The rain will also be accompanied by south or southwesterly gales and possibly severe gales at times.

It said the heaviest rain and strongest winds will occur in two main bouts - one later this morning and into the afternoon and another through the night tonight.

A further yellow alert is in place for all day on Friday.

Marina Powell, the agency's flood resilience team leader for Cumbria, said: "The cumulative effect of successive rain this week means highest impacts may be seen on Friday."