a painting of a waterfall surrounded by trees

All streams rivers and lakes in the English Lake District are rain fed. After prolonged bad weather, the valley roads can be impassable for a time as rivers suddenly become torrents swollen from water which the high fells can no longer soak up. We narrowly escaped being washed away one year when my father noticed the river beside our tent was rising too quickly. Worried about flash flooding we hurriedly packed the car in driving rain late at night and somehow got home. The morning news confirmed if we had stayed we’d have been washed away with caravans and cars as the lake flooded badly.