10.4mm for the month, only had very small amounts last few days. 

Hosepipe ban announced from Friday!

Based on the current forecast, the rain we've had the past couple of days will be our last for a long while.

And in fact we ended up with a useful 14mm (based on Odiham reading) yesterday so the 30-day rolling total has actually increased!

Still only 17.2mm in the past 30 days though, and with 25 of the last 30 days being bone dry.

There are some recent pertinent comments in the model thread that could be in this thread.

I’m interested in the so called ‘signals’ that the Met Office and others refer to, often without attribution or how they found or use them. 

Rain or the lack of. I remember commenting in March on a Bowling Club in Weymouth watering their grass. I remember Peter (Devonian) commenting not long after, April? that the spring had the ‘approaching feel’ of a long dry summer or something like that.  Then later on, Brian suggests this might be a long hot summer for parts of the UK. I’ve never known a period of weather like it. I have though read that people have died from lack of water or thirst in Britain. That’s when water springs and wells were more important for our societies than today. I can’t find the reference but I think it might have been in Medieval times?

But I have this link which is a starting point if you haven’t already come across it. 

https://www.ceh.ac.uk/our-science/projects/historic-droughts 

https://www.preventionweb.net/news/drought-century-middle-ages-parallels-climate-change-today 

It’s the way we address ‘resilience’ in our strategic thinking that is still IMO too often forgotten by our societies in the UK. And water is near the top of my list.

This report confirms that the east of Scotland has had its driest first half of any year since 1973 with groundwater levels in the Fife and Angus areas at their lowest levels on record.

In spite of all of that though, I still see certain posters on the MO thread boasting about the fact that the current drier pattern is a great change from the more miserable conditions which we had become used to last year. That might well be true to a certain extent and for here, I would even have fully agreed with that to begin with. The longer that this drier pattern has been going on for though, the more I have to ask myself just what planet these posters are actually on.

We had a drier than average autumn and winter here and then during the spring, we saw nothing but sunny skies and continuously dry weather for most of the time. Even though this summer hasn't been as continuously sunny or dry as the spring overall, heat spikes continue to come along on a regular basis with spells of relatively unsettled weather continuing to remain fairly short lived.

From this, my question is why do those who seek dry and sunny weather have to get everything their own way all of the time? In my books, it's not necessarily everyone who wants to see that and it's only fair that those who seek cooler weather and rain occasionally get their turn as well.

I like to see hot and sunny weather in the summer, but I'm now getting a bit sick and tired now of the almost constant predominately dry and sunny which we seem to find ourselves in these days. It is possible to get too much of a good thing and although I will always crave for some snow in the winter, there has even been times in the past when I've actually been fed up with getting too much snow if we have had a lot of it at any time over a short period.

Because of that, the sooner we get to a cooler and more unsettled spell for the time being at least, the better. It is because of this predominately dry and sunny weather pattern that many of farmers and growers are crying out for rain and even here in Edinburgh where it hasn't actually been as dry as many other parts of the UK, the grass in Princes Street Gardens is now looking very brown and parched. That is what has brought us into this current water scarcity situation and that is why we badly need an extended spell of cool and unsettled weather now to get us out of that.

Bewl Water, the largest reservoir in the SE (near Tunbridge Wells) was about halfway between average and lowest recorded in late June

https://www.southernwater.co.uk/about-us/environmental-performance/water-levels/reservoir-levels/ 

Groundwater levels in the Down which supply much of water in the SE are alittle below average for the time of year and decreasing at a normal rate (Chilgove  is near Chichester - data for other sites are available)

https://sites.google.com/view/groundwatergraphs/home/groundwater-data/sussex/chilgrove-west-dean-to-east-dean-chilgrove 

Just looking at my weather station stats. 

Last time there was over 10mm rain in a day was 22nd March (15mm). Before that only one other day above 10mm (late Jan) since the massive snow/rain/snow event at the start of January. 

The last time there was over 20mm was the big snow event.  A third of the yearly total came in the first 7 days of January. 

Big rainfall very much needed. 

Did you get the unexpected downpour early this afternoon? It lasted all of a minute, but that must have boosted our reservoirs 😉

Got an unexpected 0.3mm early hours this morning. Peak seemed over Tunbridge Wells/Maidstone/Rochester areas of East Kent. Did you catch this Darren?

Not Darren but as a Twells bod, can confirm we definitely caught the shower that moved through. 7.87mm of rain according to my w/s over 30 mins or so, taking us to 49.28mm for the month. 

As it goes summer so far hasn't been drier than last year IMBY (appreciate that'll vary as what's been about has been showery), with June slightly above and 18mm needed for rest of July to match last years total. The very dry end to winter and spring though has been noteworthy and I'm circa 247mm down to same point versus 2024 (which admittedly was wet IMBY).

Just 30 miles as the weather flies can make such a difference in the UK! I'm guessing Darren probably got 1-2mm.

No nothing here! Sunshine turned hazy yesterday, but surprised the cloud was thick enough for a shower!

There was a bit of drizzle this morning but that was it.  Hoping for some heavy showers later. 

Judging by Wunderground I'd say that's a decent guess - not sure which station is Darrens but there's a couple round there with just over 2mm. 

Local stations to me seem to vary between 5-8mm, with some slightly higher totals a bit further east of me towards Lamberhurst way. 

I assume it's to do with ridgelines etc. but for some reason my little bit of Kent does seem more prone to showers than others. Only thing we've been a bit lacking this summer is thunder coming up from the south - have mostly missed out on that, with our most notable storm last Saturday developing as it drifted south from London area. 

Oh Severe Droughts have occurred in the past  and you can find various references to them by reading things like Gilbert Whites diaries. That was a period of extremes of weather . Years ago most people would know little of what went on beyond their patch.

Certainly. From the second link. The transition from the Medieval Warm Period to the Little Ice Age was apparently accompanied by severe droughts between 1302 and 1307 in Europe; this preceded the wet and cold phase of the 1310s and the resulting great famine of 1315–21.

The drought we are in at the moment in Dorset is as noteworthy as anything in history. The current SW gales only serve to dry out the soils even more and make the fire risk dangerous. The fact that the Fire Service were filling bowsers from hydrants nearby shows how proactive they need to be. 

The rain forecast on the 13th for here is no more for tomorrow. The next opportunity say the BBC is Saturday when you guessed it,

Saturday will be an unsettled day with showers that will be heavy and thundery at times. The Met Office sing from the same sheet.

We'll see.

Julius Caesar on his brief raid on Britain 55BCrecirds difficulties in getting supplies 'propter siccitatem', on account of the dryness. 

Separately; the researchers found that southern Britain experienced an exceptional sequence of remarkably dry summers from 364 to 366 CE. In the period 350 to 500 CE, average monthly reconstructed rainfall in the main growing season (April–July) was 51 mm. But in 364 CE, it fell to just 29mm. 365 CE was even worse with 28mm, and 37mm the following year kept the area in crisis.

https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/extreme-drought-contributed-to-barbarian-invasion-of-late-roman-britain-tree-ring-study-reveals 

Yes it is as dry as 76 and maybe a few weeks earlier . These winds are reminiscent of that year. Horrible wind today ,shredding branches and leaves coming off trees like Autumn in places. I was talking to someone today about the big fire in Ringwood Forest in that year also.

  Interesting little site about the fires .

https://www.stephenbolwell.com/?p=6964 

That's an interesting read about '76, I remember the Matchams fire very well as a teenager. I was on a boat off Weymouth and we could see the miles/columns/long line of yellowy brown smoke from there clearly over the hills to the north-east towards Bournemouth. It wasn't that windy if I remember (on a boat) but enough to encourage a huge mega blaze.

Yes, the wind today is really uncomfortable, it exhausts you being in it and is of course desiccating the vegetation. 

It is forecast to moderate later, and I think/hope it will.

Another interesting read David. Thank you.

BBC weather forecast 6pm "...... after today's widespread heavy rain tomorrow will be drier" .............. So that'll be the rain that didn't affect 15-20 million people in the most drought stricken areas then!

And the strong wind probably dried up more than the sprinkling we actually had

Same here ,just a few drops in a very brief shower not enough to wet the ground.

I don't remember the wind in '76 and this year here (we had a wet April and some rain in June) it's only in the last week or so things are really parching up. But, generally it is a few weeks earlier than '76 and it is (and has been for some time) August that concerns me the most.

With temperature at an, obviously, higher base I think we need at least 100mm over a week to do any good and a lot more to help trees. 

Only just seen this! Yesterday's morning rain provided 2.6mm, this morning's was just 0.6mm. The monthly total is now 15.6mm. (Figures via Cumulus, rather than Wunderground as WU rather clunkily converts to inches internally, which introduces rounding errors).

(And my station is ILEYSDOW1 on Wunderground - 

https://www.wunderground.com/dashboard/pws/ILEYSDOW1 . The chap over the road has a weather station too, for added fun!)

A much needed 11mm here today taking the monthly total to 21mm so far.