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== Causes of the flood ==
During Christmas 1927, heavy snow fell in the [[Cotswolds]] in west-central England, where the Thames has its source. A sudden thaw occurred over New Year's Eve, followed by unusually heavy rain, doubling the volume of water coming down the river. The sudden rise in water level coincided with a high [[spring tide]] and a [[storm surge]] caused by a major [[extra-tropical cyclone]] in the [[North Sea]]. The storm surge raised the water levels in the [[Thames Estuary]], measured at [[Southend]], to 1.5 metres (4 ft) above normal.<ref name="lamb">H. H. Lamb, Knud Frydendahl, ''Historic Storms of the North Sea, British Isles and Northwest Europe'', p.158 ([[Cambridge University Press]], 1991)</ref>
The funnelling of the water further up the river caused its level to rise even higher. The situation was worsened by [[Dredging|capital dredging]] that had been carried out between 1909 and 1928, deepening the river channel by about 2 metres (6 ft) to allow access for deeper-draughted vessels to the [[Port of London]]. This had the side-effect of making it easier for seawater to flow up the Thames on a high tide, increasing the flow on a mean tide by about 4% and raising the tidal range by about 0.7 metres (2 ft).<ref>M. B. Abbott, Weston Andrew Price (eds.), ''Coastal, Estuarial, and Harbour Engineers' Reference Book'', p. 619. (Spon Press, 1994)</ref>
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