Is the perceived rise in flooding real?
It was claimed by experts following the floods of Autumn 2000 that such rainfall events were a taste of things to come, with increased autumn and winter rainfall a central projection of climate models.
In fact, current forecasts for later this century suggest that parts of Yorkshire will see an increase in autumn and winter rainfall of between 10 and 20%, with obvious implications for river flooding.
And according to a study by Newcastle University, extreme rainfall events have become more frequent and intense over a forty year period across the UK, particularly in Scotland and the North of England. They studied rainfall statistics from 1961-2000.
They also suggest that the five million people who live next to rivers can expect to be flooded more regularly in the future.
The study found that the probability of an extreme five or ten day rainfall event during the 1990s, compared to the previous thirty year period, doubled in Northern England.
Additional analysis showed that extreme rainfall events that are expected to happen every fifty years increased in frequency and size in the North of England, especially in autumn.
The pattern of changes in extremes uncovered by the research matches the predictions made in a number of climate models. Dr Fowler, author of the study at Newcastle University, claims 'the changes in the 40 year period are consistent with the trend we would expect from global warming'.
But Philip Eden, one of the country's leading and most respected climatologists, argues that the claims could be misleading. The problem, he says, is down to the short period of rainfall statistics analysed.
He claims that by taking a much longer time period, for example the whole of the 20th century, the frequency of high intensity rainfall events that we have witnessed in the past 30 years is not unusual.
The eras of heaviest summer downpours have actually coincided with cooler summers, not warmer summers, in particular 1912-1931, and again from 1948-1969.
In autumn and winter, downpours are closely linked with the strength of westerlies, which were very low in the 1960s, the start point of the study, and reached a peak between 1988 and 2002, he continued.
That said there does seem to have been more incidences of flooding in the last couple of decades.
But could it be that this is more a function of urbanisation and flood plain development, than any significant increase in high intensity rainfall events?
And the media could have played their part in making us think that flooding is on the increase.
100 years ago we would have no idea if there had been flash floods in some parts of the country, but 24 news has changed all that and within hours pictures of floods from around the world are beamed into our living rooms.
This all adds to the perception that the frequency of serious floods are on the increase when it could be that its simply the awareness of flooding that has changed - coupled with the extensive flood plain development that we have witnessed in the last few decades.
Hello, I’m Paul Hudson, weather presenter and climate correspondent for BBC Look North in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. I've been interested in the weather and climate for as long as I can remember, and worked as a forecaster with the Met Office for more than ten years locally and at the international unit before joining the BBC in October 2007. Here I divide my time between forecasting and reporting on stories about climate change and its implications for people's everyday lives. 
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