The National Drought Group has warned the current drought is set to continue despite the recent rain.
Even with the wet weather at the end of August, the month’s rainfall was just 42% of its long-term average and the summer has been declared the hottest since records began in 1884.
Five areas remain in drought, and more areas are likely to declare drought status within the next few weeks, it has warned.
Groundwater and reservoir levels across England have continued to recede and the lack of rainfall has impacted harvests, navigation, and seen restrictions in the form of several hosepipe bans.
“While we have seen some recent rain, it is nowhere near enough to reverse the impact of the last seven months, which have been the driest since 1976,” said Alan Lovell, chair of the Environment Agency. “The environment bears the brunt of this lack of rainfall, and this summer we have seen widespread impacts from low river levels, fish needing to be rescued, and wildfires.”
The dry weather has prompted an early harvest season with generally lower and poorer quality crop yields.
Read more: Potato yield and quality likely to be down as drought takes hold
“We are calling on everyone to continue to take simple steps to reduce their water use and are grateful to people for following the restrictions imposed by water companies,” added Lovell. “By saving water, we all leave more water in the environment.”
The NDG – which includes the Met Office, government, regulators, water companies, the National Farmers’ Union, Canal & River Trust, anglers, and conservation experts – praised the public for helping to reduce their own water use.
“Looking ahead, while the longer-range forecast suggests a trend towards wetter-than-average conditions, rainfall is expected to vary significantly across regions, with more rain expected to western and northern parts of the UK, while eastern and southern areas may remain drier,” said Met Office chief meteorologist Will Lang.
“Importantly, even with the overall signal for wetter weather, and the chance for flooding in some places, this does not guarantee that current drought conditions will ease consistently across the country.”
Reservoirs fell by 1.4% last week and they are now 56.1% full on average across England. The average for this time of year is 82.8%.
The lowest reservoirs are the Pennines group (29%), Yorkshire stocks (30.3%) and Ardingly (34.1%).
The current water shortfall situation in England has been defined as a “nationally significant incident” based on the number of areas affected and the impacts being seen in the environment.
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