The number of bad floods per year did increase from about three in the late 19th century to more than 20 in the early 21st. However, records are heavily skewed as most of the middling-sized floods that happened before 1950 have simply passed out of memory.

From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT

By Paul Homewood

Sky Blame Babet Floods On Climate Change

Sky think that climate change is making floods worse.

Maybe they might like to explain why flooding was so bad in the 1950s:

A trawl through the Met Office monthly weather reports of the time finds these references to severe floods:

• Feb 1950 – Considerable flooding in some districts.
• Nov 1951 – Severe flooding in many parts of the country
• Aug 1952 – Lynmouth floods
• Nov 1952 – Serious flooding in Sussex
• Jan 1953 – The Great North Sea floods
• May 1953 – Severe storms brought heavy rain and floods, particularly in West Scotland causing “much damage”
• June 1953 – Severe thunderstorms brought “exceptionally heavy rain” causing “severe flooding and considerable damage”
• July 1953 –Widespread thunderstorms seriously affected crops in West Midlands and Central Scotland, with local damage due to lightning and floods, with some loss of life.
• Aug 1954 – Considerable flooding in some areas
• Oct 1954 – Severe flooding in NW England, N Wales and S Scotland
• Nov 1954 – Serious floods in many parts of the country
• March 1955- Serious floods in the Midlands
• July 1955 – Record daily rainfall in Dorset led to severe flooding there. (279mm at Martinstown is still the highest daily total for any station in the UK)
• Aug 1956 – Widespread flooding
• Oct 1957 – Floods in Wales and NW England, with 12.71 inch of rain recorded at Blaenau Ffestiniog in a four-day spell.
• Nov 1957 – Torrential rain led to floods in many areas, particularly the Midlands
• Sep 1958 – Widespread flooding in Wales

These are just the major flood events. There would be many more minor ones which never got a mention in the monthly summaries.