Here in South Wales things are only just starting to look parched following a few well timed bouts of rain through July.

I went across the channel to Somerset last weekend and was surprised at the difference - the Taunton area and off the Quantocks towards Minehead was much browner with visible signs of stress to the plants. It's been a week since then with no appreciable rain (a few spots of drizzle according to my dad) and there's none in the forecast for the next week or indeed in the, albeit unreliable, 2 week time frame beyond.

I Dread to think what it will be like if we have another 2 or 3 weeks without rain.

We had a couple of good bouts of rain in the last 2 weeks of July and the first week of this month. Overall totals I doubt much more than 10 to 15mm. 

Since March totals must be way down. 🙂🙂🙂

After some bits and bobs of rain recently,  it's starting to look very parched again around here. The ground is rock hard.

It's 1976 but enhanced  by 'that which most people want to pretend isn't happening, simply ignore or not know about'. It could be a lot worse by September and as you say there is little sign of the amounts of rain needed.

We live in a land,  environment, and infrastructure not used to such summers - shrubs can't cope, trees get stressed, reservoirs aren't big enough, rivers dry up. Ok, it might normally happen once ever 50 years maybe but I thought August 2022 was bad round here and yet three years later? We have another horrible August heatwave and drought on the cards. It is simply not normal and humanity simply has to grow up and sort out 'that which people would rather we just ingored' or it will just keep getting warmer in the winter and hotter in the summer 😢

The thing is people don't want to hear bad news and they attack the messengers of that.

After a useful 30mm in the mid to latter part of July less than 1mm so far in August. Grass did green up a bit but I've noticed natural shrubs like Elder are having their leaves wilt. YTD 240mm yet miraculously no hose pipe ban - yet.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dry-weather-and-drought-in-england-summary-reports/dry-weather-and-drought-in-england-1-to-7-august-2025 

includes "The dry weather is set to last until the final week of the month, where more unsettled weather is likely to arrive for the start of September."

That's a really interesting read - it paints a difficult but not yet disastrous picture. August will be the teller.

Now feels as dry as '76 in this part of southern England. But this time there is more proactive planning to cope. A few years ago Wessex Water constructed a large north to south pipeline to reduce chalk abstraction around here. So there is a kind of plan but perhaps not enough.

The rain is always just around the corner. This new one beginning of September. I hope this forecast comes to fruition. The short term forecast has hope cast thundery showers for later today. Whatever, my water bill in September will be a record high.

Countryside fires rampant at times. Most if not all arsonist/manmade which don't address the reasons why they are so intense. Will we learn this time how to manage dry landscapes?

It's not seemed so bad in this region 

Overall it's felt drier and sunnier than average (for a few months now). There's been some periods where the grass browns and everywhere gets that arid, dusty feel - but then we've had week or so of wetter weather and it's got back to normal.

The Met Office anomaly maps bear this out - overall drier than average, but not excessively so (May & July 50-75% of average; June bang on average) and slightly below average number of days where has fallen.

It's been an 8/10 summer period so far for me (and I'm including May in that)

I was intrigued to see that, for most of that Kent/Sussex/Surrey area, July had as much as double average rainfall (and slightly above average number of days where at least some rain fell)

Our reservoirs in Yorkshire are at 47% (68% last year)

A whopping 201mm in my vineyard PWS in July. It's right on the Eastern edge of that dark blue shaded area in Kent, in fact possibly a little further North East of the edge. There were 3 major falls, each of which delivered over 60mm. The vineyard and surrounding area went from being summery and dryish to lush, overgrown and with swamp-like muddy lanes and footpaths. Truly a different world from the West Country. It's dried out a little since but even here in SE London our lawn is bright green - it was yellow in June - and the weeds are rampant.

Not often London and Kent get all the rain while the West stays dry, certainly not in mid-late summer. I expect that sort of pattern more in May and June.

That's almost what I've had here in Worcestershire all year - and over half of that was back in Jan/Feb.

Noticing a lot of big trees with brown leaves now, and some smaller ones visibility wilting.    The heat this week won't help!

For reservoirs that serve NW England, Thirlmere/Haweswater stand at 55%, whilst 'Pennine Sources' are only at 39.5%

Vyrnwy & Dee, however, stand at 72.4%

For Thirlmere/Haweswater, the issue is more a prolonged period of overall below average rainfall, especially this spring. Looking over the past 11 months, it's been:

Sep - dry

Oct - average 

Nov - dry

Dec - average 

Jan - dry

Feb - average 

Mar - exceptionally dry

Apr - exceptionally dry 

May - average 

Jun - very wet

Jul - average 

I think the pronounced low levels in 'Pennine Sources' reflects what you infer, that further east has been even drier.

I remember someone says their local reservoirs were brimming in the spring. I just had a look online and the three of them today are all below half full. The lowest at 41% capacity. 

Bring it on.  It’s summer, and the longer it continues the better. sic

https://waterlevels.sepa.org.uk/station/234292 

The heavy rain was very localised though. Even here, with 70mm in July (well above average) it's back to having cracked ground, the lawn has stopped growing again and the hazel trees - having paused for a bit - have now resumed their yellowing of leaves. 

That's the snag, while the figures look good most of that ran off into the ditches and drains. Here at least there was only one afternoon where the very top mm or so of soil turned muddy, it was back to its normal baked state the following day. Around the same time some truly impressive mushrooms appeared (big flat white ones, must have been 9 inches across), but they disappeared as quickly as they came.

I'm looking forward to some lo some lasting moisture, but that looks to be weeks if not months away yet.

I regularly check the weekly report from Gov UK on river level and rainfall.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/weekly-rainfall-and-river-flow-reports-for-england 

It's delayed each week, in case anyone wants now data (today only dated to 5th August); but I find it a good guide for the nation as a whole and for comparisons between rivers. Here, our aquifer fed chalk river has held out well in most weeks, only going into the below normal category once or twice.

The data in table 1 shows that most regions away from the NW and SW have had a little more than half their normal rainfall for the 6 month period February-July. As mentioned above, short intense spells of summer rainfall, however much the gauges measure, are frankly useless on dry ground. Spring rainfall is critical, as it precedes max transpiration and demand periods.

There is a maize field near here that got going on a rare rainfall in May. It's now desiccated. 

Latest report on the Holt Heath Fire that it was started deliberately. Came across the new Forest and there was a group having a barbecue near Godshill . Were not too happy on being told to put it out🤣

 It is certainly as dry as 76 in some areas round here but due to the heavy shower type of rainfall this Spring and Summer some areas do not look as drought stressed

I am not sur how accurate that report on River levels is as the hampshire  Avon which on that map is only classed as low when i would say it is way lower than average

The data is almost a week old after a slightly less dry period- the next one might show different data to reflect the dry week since then. The Itchen here is not noticeably low to the eye, and that matches the data, but the % bands used in definition are too symmetrical for my liking I admit.

The Itchen rises on chalk, and has a low fetch and small catchment relative to the Avon, which is fed by several rivers with varying geology. By the time it reaches Hampshire and the Ebble has joined it, its sources might easily be at different flow levels and the chosen sites for measurement might not match what is downstream.

So your point is a fair one.

To August 10th, Arlington Reservoir at about 58% (lowest level last year 54.5%) and Ardingly at 48.9% (fractionally lower than last year's minimum, also occurring at this time of year). Southern Water too idle to update Bewl Water and others in the southeast.

https://sites.google.com/view/groundwatergraphs/home/groundwater-data 

Groundwater levels in Sussex close to normal for the time of year near Brighton, about halfway between normal and longterm minimum further west. Hampshire boreholes inland slightly above norm, nearer the coast esp SE Hampshire also between norm and longterm minimum.

https://www.gaugemap.co.uk/# !Map

River levels virtually all "below typical range", just a few exceptions for tidal weirs and in N Wales.

Indeed, and I wonder how much of the current flows are treated effluent?

Certainly the River Frome near me is very low but still has water coming through treatment plants along its course.

Would apply to many watercourses right now I assume but I can't find any data if indeed there is any publically available data.

AI search says from 4% in wet conditions to 45% in drought, averaging 12% over the year, but the reference it gives seems to be based on only a few rivers in Norway, and specific data for a given river at a given time in UK is not generally available.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301479721005077