spate /speɪt/ BrE AmE noun
[ Date: 1400-1500 ; Origin: Perhaps from Old French espoit , from Dutch spuiten 'to flow out strongly' ]
1 . spate of something a large number of similar things that happen in a short period of time, especially bad things:
a spate of burglaries
2 . in spate British English a river, stream etc that is in spate is very full and flowing very fast