How did the 1963 Boscastle flood start?

Answer 1

It rained heavily for a long period of time, (Prolonged Rain) , it rained an exceptional amount of rain in 8 hours, 2 inches in 2 hours! Also, Boscastle is right on a floodplain in a narrow valley, so it will flood more easily than in other places.

Answer 2

The Boscastle flood of 2004 occurred on Monday, 16 August 2004 in the two villages of http://www.answers.com/topic/boscastle and http://www.answers.com/topic/crackington-haven in http://www.answers.com/topic/cornwall, http://www.answers.com/topic/england, http://www.answers.com/topic/united-kingdom. The villages suffered extensive damage after a flash-flood caused by an exceptional amount of rain that fell over the course of eight hours that afternoon. The flood in Boscastle was filmed and extensively reported but that in Crackington Haven was not mentioned beyond the local news. The Boscastle flooding was caused by rainfall which the river could not hold. The floods were the worst in local memory. A study commissioned by the http://www.answers.com/topic/environment-agency from hydraulics consulting firm HR Wallingford concluded that it was among the most extreme ever experienced in Britain. The peak flow was about 140m³/s (tonnes), between 5:00pm and 6:00pm BST. The annual chance of this (or a greater) flood in any one year is about 1 in 400. The probability each year of the heaviest three-hour rainfall is about 1 in 1300 (although rainfall probability is not the same as flood probability). 7EK * The last time Boscastle had suffered notable flooding was in 1996 as an result of http://www.answers.com/topic/hurricane-lili-1996, but floods are recorded in 1847, 1957, 3 June 1958 (one man drowned) and 1963. On 16 August, 1952 the small town of http://www.answers.com/topic/lynmouth, 50 miles (80 km) north-east along the north coast in http://www.answers.com/topic/devon nearhttp://www.answers.com/topic/exmoor, suffered extensive damage in a catastrophic flood, in which 34 people lost their lives. Coincidentally this was fifty-two years to the day before Boscastle's 2004 flood.

Answer 3

Well, some dude called poseidon thought this 'Boscastle' was being naughty. So what he did was called forth his waves of destruction! (in this case it was rain but still....) It rained hard for 8 hours (peak rainfall 24mm falling in 15minutes) until the two rivers in the valley both overflowed. The river flowed through Boscastle and so as it overflowed the village got owned e.g houses destroyed, briges collapsing etc.

There is more if you look on wiki but i cba so here you go have fun.

Answer 4

16th August 2004 it started at 12:00 and ended at 20:00

Answer 5

Cars were flooded, many main buildings and bridges were destroyed, most of the infrastructure and personal belongings were washed away as well.

Answer 6

Torrential rain flooded the river Jordan, allowing it to burst its banks. The rain lasted for a day and triggered flash floods throughout the valley.

Answer 7

It caused debris to be washed out to sea, eg. cars and rubble.

Answer 8

There were areas which flooded in the holy city that is boscastle, sitiuated in the sunny, riany and alltogether boring cornwall.

Answer 9

Because of everything.