north, east and south, including Buckholt Wood (), The Kymin (), and The Graig (), with more gently undulating terrain to the west. The town centre itself is sited on a low-lying spur between the floodplains of the Wye and Monnow, and has frequently suffered from severe flooding. The water-meadows to the north and south of the town centre, known respectively as Vauxhall Fields and Chippenham Mead, have generally remained free of development. In climatic terms, the town is located between those areas around the Severn Estuary which show a maritime influence, and the cooler and drier conditions of the English Midlands further inland. The nearby Ross-on-Wye weather station shows average daily maximum temperatures ranging from in January to in July, with 1504 hours of sunshine per year, and an average annual rainfall of . Transport Since 1966, the A40 dual carriageway road runs past Monmouth linking with the M50 motorway at Ross-on-Wye. South of the town, the road passes through a short tunnel beneath Gibraltar Hill. It follows the River Wye valley from the northeast of Monmouth. The A466 road, also known as the Wye Valley Road, crosses the A40, linking Chepstow and Hereford, and provides access to the Severn Bridge on the M48 motorway. The distances of airports from Monmouth are, Bristol Airport , Cardiff Airport and London Heathrow Airport . Regular but infrequent bus services run between the town and Hereford, Ross-on-Wye, Coleford, Chepstow, Newport and Abergavenny. Monmouth has been without passenger rail services since January 1959; goods trains ran until 1964. Monmouth's main railway station, known as Monmouth Troy, was a coal distribution depot and a base for heavy goods vehicles for many years after its closure as a part of the rail network, but the building has now been dismantled and re-erected at Winchcombe railway station on the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway. The other station at Monmouth was Monmouth May Hill on the Ross and Monmouth Railway, built on the opposite bank of the Wye to the town centre. This operated for many years as Monmouth Sawmills and Gas Works after its closure as part of the rail network. Governance Monmouth is administered by Monmouthshire County Council, one of the 22 unitary local authorities in Wales formed in 1996. Its offices were located until 2012 at the former Gwent County Hall at Croesyceiliog, Cwmbran; most staff are now in offices at Usk and Magor. The town