FORECASTERS have issued a second yellow warning for rainfall in York and in the River Ouse's catchment in the Dales - deepening fears of further flooding in York over the weekend and next week.

The new Met Office warning said today that further rainfall was expected on Monday, from the early hours until 3pm, which might lead to flooding and transport disruption.

But an earlier yellow warning still remains in force for tomorrow, which says persistent rain - heavy over the hills - will fall from lunchtime until early on Saturday.

The Ouse, which peaked at 4.4 metres above normal summer levels on Monday in the wake of Storm Dennis, had fallen to 3.42 metres by 4pm today.

But the Environment Agency said it was expecting levels to rise again as a result of the rainfall over the next few days, adding: "They could reach levels seen during Storm Dennis due to the cumulative effect of the rainfall we’ve already had and saturated ground."

However, the agency stressed that it was too early to predict how much rain will fall and which areas will be affected, adding: "Our incident rooms will remain open around the clock to monitor river levels and issues flood alerts and warnings should we need to."