GR HUTCHESON, of Slapton, Kingsbridge, writes:

The media have made much of the recent coastal flooding in the Westcountry.

High winds, coupled to high spring tides in our estuaries, and a huge amount of rain inland draining into our rivers, were the cause.

However, the pressure around Devon and Cornwall was not especially low when the flooding took place, so the water levels were not significantly augmented.

In Aberystwyth, only 150 miles north of us, but very much nearer to the centre of the low pressure system, the heights of the tides were substantially increased. The pics on TV showed it all.

At the end of this month and in the early days of February, the predicted heights of high water around the coasts of Devon and Cornwall are as high as those that were predicted during the recent flooding earlier this month.

Were there to be a low pressure system tracking across Devon and Cornwall during this period of high tides, we could still be in for quite a shock, if river levels do not drop rapidly.

Many of your readers will cross the bridge at Aveton Gifford every day, en-route for Plymouth. Few, sadly, will be aware that when spring tides coincide with really low pressure – 975mbs, or less – the height of high tide at that bridge increases by half a metre!

And, of course, these big tides also coincide with the time that many of your readers will be commuting to work, or returning home in the evening.