Why do UK flood signs say Ford?

Whenever I see a flood sign I notice that it says "Ford" on it. I was just wondering why it says that and not "Flood"

A ford indicates that the water is not deep so you can still walk across as long as you don't mind getting your feet wet. A place where a river can be forded - i.e. You can do this - would be a great place to start a town and as Eric says, that's why there are so many towns with names that end in -ford. It's not deep enough to be a flood, so the sign doesn't say that.

A ford isn't a flood, it's a place at a river crossing.

Its a big dip. My son ignored the sign and drowned his car. It was a write off and brand new. Silly ***
UK

It is not a flood sign, it is a sign for where a road/track crosses a river/stream at a shallow part.

They are two different things. Look up the full definitions of each in a good dictionary such the Oxford English Dictionary.

A ford is a place where a road or footpath crosses a river. Rivers and streams are normally shallower at these points than the rest of their course. Some fords are "dry" for most of the time and only become wet when the river or stream is "in spate". This may seem like a "flood" but it is not. A road sign saying "Ford" is always placed at the entrance to a ford.

A flood is what happens when a water course overflows from its proper path (or a pipe bursts) and drenches areas around it that are supposed to be dry. This usually makes roads the same as a road passing through a ford but these are not the same thing. A sign saying "Flood" will be placed at the entrance to the flooded area.

A "flood plain" is an area of land which is normally dry but which is expected to become flooded whenever a nearby river breaks its banks. There are thousands of flood plains in the UK and sometimes a selfish builder and negligent local authority build houses on one of these. Then when there's heavy rain or a wet winter the river floods the houses.

You need to understand the difference between a ford and a flood.

A ford is where the course of a road or path is through a shallow part of a stream or river. A flood is where a stream or river overflows onto a road or path.

They don't, they say flood.

A ford sign indicates something different, where the road just goes through a river instead of there being a bridge or something.

A 'Ford' is a part of a river which is widened to cross a road (or the road crosses the river there!) which can be almost dry in Summer, and may be VERY much deeper in Winter or after a long spell of heavy rain. In Scandanavia, Norway in particular, there are a great many 'Fjords' which have a very uniform geological appearance to them - think about glaciers gouging rocks out of the ground on their way to sea.

Your supposed to ford the river with your car. Where you continusly keep moving forward at a set pace (medium) until you are through the river. Its standard 4wding stuff