Storm Ciarán is set to batter the North East with heavy rain later this week.
A yellow weather warning for heavy downpours has been issued by the Met Office for Thursday and Friday.
The forecaster says conditions are expected to worsen as the week progresses, with a “deep area of low pressure” set to arrive on Thursday named as Storm Ciarán. It will bring strong winds and heavy rain to the North East.
The yellow warning is in place from 6am on Thursday until 6am on Friday.
It covers the entire region from the Scottish border down to Leeds and Hull.
The forecaster has said the latest rainfall could lead to disruption to roads and public transport while already flood-affected areas following Storm Babet could get worse.
In the south gusts of 80mph are possible along the coast as the stormy weather hits.
Met Office Deputy chief meteorologist Chris Almond said: “Winds associated with Storm Ciarán are likely to gust to 80mph along the south coast of England, with a small risk of somewhere exposed seeing 90mph, and winds could even gust up to 50 or 60 mph further inland.
“This deep, low-pressure system will also bring heavy rain to much of the UK, but the heaviest rain is expected in southern and western areas, with 20 to 25mm quite widely across the region but up to 40 to 60mm potentially over higher ground.
“Heavy and persistent rain will fall on to already saturated ground bringing a risk of further impacts such as flooding in areas that are already struggling to clean up from the heavy rainfall we have seen over the last week or so.”
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Meanwhile the Environment Agency has issued more than 70 flood warnings ahead of the UK being hit by Storm Ciarán on Wednesday
It will come just days after parts of County Durham were hit by flash flooding.
Villages in Lanchester woke on Sunday (October 29) to flooding which closed roads and caused damage to homes and businesses.
Roads were closed in other areas while river levels rose.
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