Work will begin this year on a new radar system designed to predict surface water flooding responsible for much of the damage in Yorkshire from June's torrential downpour.

But the Environment Agency has warned that the system presents a "significant challenge" and could take years to perfect rather than months.

About 35,000 homes and businesses were flooded in Yorkshire from surface water (pluvial) flooding alone following a period of unprecedented rainfall that culminated in the torrential downpour of last June 25.

The Environment Agency was criticised immediately following the flood after it failed to predict most of the areas affected. Its systems currently only chart flooding from rivers and high tides.

Now the agency has joined forces with the Met Office to bring a new type of high-powered radar to Yorkshire and develop a programme that will allow it to predict which areas will flood from rainwater alone.

Yorkshire flood defence manager Mark Tinnion told the Yorkshire Post: "It's a real challenge to come up with technically viable and realistic solutions to how we can improve our pluvial flood warning.

"We're looking at working with the Met Office on developing radar systems but it's a significant challenge because weather patterns are very localised and fast-changing.

"Radar could be the answer, allowing us to predict up to six hours ahead where areas will flood, but I'm afraid we're talking about years rather than months."

Even when the radar technology is ready there are still many other issues that affect whether an area will suffer flooding, such as the state of the drains or the saturation levels of the ground.

"It is hard to say whether we will ever have a fail-safe system , and that brings with it its own issues," said Mr Tinnion. "For example if we put out warnings and then an area does not flood, will people trust us again the next time?"

The Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) first announced plans to develop a radar system for pluvial flooding in its controversial 2004 document Making Space For Water. It also called for "managed retreat" from coastlines under threat of erosion instead of investment in sea defences.

It stated: "The Environment Agency will continue to develop the most effective mechanisms for delivery of flood warnings and ways to increase coverage, reliability and accuracy.

"Defra will work with the agency and other relevant bodies to explore the feasibility of developing a warning service for urban drainage, sewers and groundwater flooding."

Mr Tinnion said work towards the technicalities was now nearing its conclusion and an assessment would then be made on whether to take the projects to the next stage.

Scientists are also developing a computer simulation that is representative of at least 100 years of rainfall over each small locality in three pilot areas Glasgow, London and Bradford.

The Met Office are providing data for each square kilometre of Bradford, while academics at Imperial College and Newcastle University attempt to build the simulation.

But project managers say this development is at the leading edge of research and the degree of success that can be achieved remains to be seen.

At present the Environment Agency aims to give people at least two hours warning to prepare and protect themselves and their property from river or tidal flooding. But it is only able to do this for slower floods, as it then has time to work out exactly where the rain is falling and how it will affect streams and rivers.

It says it is very difficult to provide advance warnings for flash flooding due to the uncertainty in predicting where heavy rain will fall, especially as storms can develop very quickly.

The June floods are estimated to have cost the Yorkshire economy up to £3bn and many cities and towns damaged are still struggling to receive funding to rebuild schools, homes and roads.