Wettest week for two years but still not enough rain to get out of drought

Published5 hours ago

The recent stormy weather brought England's wettest week in two years, according to the Environment Agency.

However, despite the rain, Wales and most of England are still in drought with parts of southern England in severe drought.

Met Office provisional statistics for October show that the UK received above average rainfall.

However, the National Drought Group have said it will take sustained and above average rainfall over a seven month period for conditions to improve to normal.

Over the last week we had the first two named storms of the season - Austen and Boelo - which gave much of the UK significant and much needed rain.

Rainfall totals ranged from 38mm in central England to 87mm in the south-west and according to Enviroment Agency (EA) monitoring, it was the wettest week across England since October 2024.

In some parts of southern England there was nearly 50% more rainfall than normal throughout the month.

As a whole, England has had 111% of its long-term monthly rainfall, according to the EA.

Reservoirs still exceptionally low

The hot and dry summer took its toll on our water supplies when England only saw 10% of its average July rainfall.

Hosepipe bans were announced for millions of customers and still remain in place.

Rainfall in October has improved the situation in north-west England where the Environment Agency has moved the region out of drought and into 'recovery' status.

Elsewhere across England, despite the wetter October, there hasn't been enough rain to top up the majority of our reservoirs.

According to the Environment Agency 11 reservoirs are still classed as 'exceptionally low'.

Wimbleball and Ardingly reservoirs in Somerset and West Sussex respectively have less than 20% of their normal capacity.

While October has seen a return to wetter conditions, early rainfall tends to be soaked up by soil or runs off hardened ground and hasn't therefore had a significant impact to our reservoirs.

Only once the soil is wet, does it start to be properly absorbed by the deeper groundwater stores.

No significant rain in the forecast

With high pressure developing across the UK, the outlook for the start of November is looking very settled.

There is no significant rain the forecast for at least the next week, perhaps longer.

It may not be completely dry however as mist, fog and low cloud in the next week could bring some drizzle at times.

Another dry spell is inevitably going to put more strain on water supplies

Drought is only over when rivers, groundwater and reservoirs are back to normal levels and according to Philip Duffy, Chief Executive of the Environment Agency, we "need sustained rainfall to recover".

The Agency have said that England will need at least 20% more rainfall than average across the next six months to be considered out of drought by spring.

Anything less risks the drought continuing into next year – with Devon, Cornwall and East Anglia most at risk.

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