SERIOUS flooding hit Suffolk overnight with roads blocked and rivers threatening to break their banks.Much of the county was affected after a month's worth of rainfall fell in just 10 hours, making it difficult for rivers and drains to cope.

SERIOUS flooding hit Suffolk overnight with roads blocked and rivers threatening to break their banks.

Much of the county was affected after a month's worth of rainfall fell in just 10 hours, making it difficult for rivers and drains to cope.

The A1214 through Kesgrave was under several inches of water, and roads were also blocked in the Stowmarket, Wickham Market and Framlingham areas.

The Nacton Road area was the worst-hit part of Ipswich, and the FA Youth Cup match at Portman Road was abandoned after 88 minutes with the score at 0-0 because of the rain.

Some of the worst problems were in the south west of the county around the Sudbury area.

As much as 30ml of rainfall was predicted to have fallen by this morning, just 5ml short of the average for February.

The Environment Agency placed a 'flood watch' status - an early detection warning - on the Tidal Deben Estuary yesterday afternoon in anticipation of the rapidly rising water levels.

By late last night warnings were also in place on the River Stour from Kedington, near Haverhill, to Sudbury and the River Gipping from Stowmarket to Needham Market, as well as the Rattlesden River.

Suffolk police said they had received a number of calls of excess water problems on roads, though they were still passable.

The worst affected areas were around Haverhill, with a stream drain cover spewing out water on the A143 road at Wratting.

There were also reports of flooding on B1079 at Clopton, Playford Road at Rushmere St Andrew and Nacton Road, Ipswich.

This morning emergency services were called to two reports of cars getting stuck in flood water.

At about 6.10am water rescue fire crews were called to Hawstead near Bury St Edmunds where a car was in trouble.

By the time crews arrived the car had been towed out by a member of the public.

Then at about 7.15am paramedics and police officers were called to Lower Road in Lavenham where another car had got stuck in flood water. This time the car's occupants managed to escape.

Throughout Suffolk drivers are also being warned of dangerous conditions on the roads early today with the eastern coast set to be battered by gusts of winds up to 50mph and icy conditions possible.

And the miserable weather is set to continue, with the cold snap not relinquishing its grip for at least another week.

John Law, a forecaster at Weatherquest, said: 'An area of low pressure is currently sliding along the Channel so as well as wet weather we are going to get a lot of windy weather around the coast.

'Gusts of around 50mph are expected, particularly first thing (until 10am), but these will ease down throughout the day and they should not present much of a problem inland.'

After temperatures hovered around freezing last night, he said today will see brighter, sunnier spells develop from late morning and there will be a high of around 4-5C. But temperatures will plummet again to -3C overnight.

'It still looks pretty cold throughout the week, even through into the weekend. Overnight temperatures will be around -3C to -4C and daytime temperatures around 5C,' he added.