UK weather: Driest start to year in England since 1976on July 26, 2022 at 1:58 pm

The period between January and June this year was the driest in England since 1976, the Met Office has said.

With water levels running low, the National Drought Group met on Tuesday to discuss how to cope with conditions.

While there are concerns a drought could be declared this summer the group stopped short of that and instead urged people to use water wisely.

It comes after a spell of hot weather, which saw the UK’s record temperature broken last week.

Conditions have been particularly dry in the south-east of England with the west, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland seeing lower temperatures and more rainfall.

Officials from bodies including the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the Environment Agency, the National Farmers’ Union and the Country Land and Business Association have met with water companies to discuss how to protect supplies.

They are urging people to save water after months of below average rainfall, but no restrictions on water usage have been put in place in England.

Environment Agency executive director Harvey Bradshaw, who chairs the National Drought Group, said the group would continue to monitor the situation with further dry weather forecast for August.

Nowhere in England is currently considered “in drought” but most of the country has moved into “prolonged dry weather” status, with low river flows which can impact farmers and other water users as well as wildlife.

Low groundwater levels, dry soils and low reservoirs have also been seen.

The last time a drought was officially declared was in 2018.

Amid the dry weather the Environment Agency has applied for a drought order for the Holme Styes reservoir in Yorkshire, while Southern Water has applied for a drought permit for the River Test in Southampton.

These allow more flexibility to manage water resources and the effects of drought on water supply and the environment.

Dr Rob Thompson, a meteorologist at the University of Reading, said that while the weather was dry and the amount of rain recently was below average, it was not unusual, with similar dry periods occurring every few years.

He said the amount of rainfall this year was about the same as the last official drought in 2018/19, although this year it had been very warm for quite some time.

“The Met Office definition of a drought is based on the lack of rainfall, but in terms of a more agricultural sense it is probably drier than just the lack of rain because of all the evaporation,” he said.

Dr Thompson said that with climate change the amount of rain each year was not expected to increase much, but the way in which it fell might differ.

“We expect more extremes, and the extremes to be more extreme,” he said, warning that the UK could see more periods of droughts but also more flash flooding.

The UK is not the only country suffering from hot and dry weather with many parts of Europe ablaze with wildfires, a drought emergency declared in northern Italy and a UN warning that 20 million people are at risk from severe hunger in East Africa.

The UK recorded its hottest ever temperature last Tuesday, with thermometers hitting 40.3C in Lincolnshire and more than 30 places recording temperatures above the previous record.

Amid the heat and dry weather there were a series of fires across the UK, with the London Fire Brigade experiencing its busiest day since World War Two.

Heatwaves are becoming more likely and more extreme because of human-induced climate change.

The world has already warmed by about 1.1C since the industrial era began, and temperatures will keep rising unless governments around the world make steep cuts to emissions.

We are living in the hottest period for 125,000 years, according to the UN’s climate science body, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.