You'll get plenty of rain in the next ten days, don't worry - I'm coming up to North Northumberland then so that should fix it as I was after some dark skies for astro-photography!

Ground till quite dry despite the recent rainfall and cracks still in lawn. It has seemed wet but 30mm isn't much in two weeks after months of dry weather and the last 4 days have been dry. The sIlver birch tree thinks it is autumn and the leaves are turning yellow and many have fallen already.

75mm and counting in the last 10 days. Absolute wash out this September is turning into.

67mm here since I got my new gauge on the 29th August.

Need more (a lot more) to get the lakes across the road to recover.

About 250mm for the year, by the end of September year total should be about 575mm.

Since January every month has been very dry only July got to just over 50% normal with 40mm.

You must be right near the lowest rainfall of anybody here. I'm pretty close as well. Dry for the past 6 days and as has been the way this year the showers and heavier streamers dodging all around me today with just 0.9mm so far. Lunchtime, I sat in a pub just 2 miles west of here and watched a couple of torrential downpours only to get home to see dampened ground. Cracks in lawn wont close for several months I don't think.

What did you get from the 28th Aug to the 2nd of Sept Darren, as I was on the Danube from Vienna to Budapest where it was still 24-32C  and dry? Looks like I got 20mm plus a further 10mm on the 3rd. Still very dry and silver birch shedding leaves.

You could try acquiring a Great Dane puppy - mine's got the ability to sniff out cracks that are covered with just a thin bit of grass, then quick as a flash excavate them. I've now got 4 great cracks in the lawn - one of them has been there for years, coming and going, but I didn't know about the others. They're deep, too, and pouring a watering can's worth of water into one of them, experimentally, just showed it vanishing into the depths. 

I dread to think what that's doing to people's foundations around here!

There's been 1.6mm of rain today and the monthly total has just passed 21mm. Hopefully you'll get some more over the next few days too!

I just wish that I could actually believe that but sadly, I don't.

In fact, there is a report on the local press in East Lothian just to the east of Edinburgh which is highlighting just how critically low, the river levels are in one of the rivers in that region and that report can be viewed here . Also in advance of tomorrow's weekly water scarcity update from SEPA, a further 7 regions have now had their status upgraded to significant water scarcity status with those regions being in East Lothian, the Borders and other parts of the east of Scotland although I will provide a further update on that tomorrow when this week's official report has been released.

As I write, Edinburgh Gogarbank has still only had a total of 10.2 mm of rain during this month so far with virtually nothing at all in the last week, and we're now almost approaching the halfway point in this month, a month which only has 30 days in it.

We were supposed to get some rain from today's weather system but as has been the case all too often just lately, this weather system is once again breaking up as it comes across here with very little rain actually falling in these parts. There are even some breaks in that cloud cover to allow the odd brighter interval and once again, the temperature has risen to almost 20°C. On other threads, people are taking a lot about the recent changes in our weather, but I'm still waiting for those changes here as our weather just now continues to be no different from what it was like here throughout most of the summer.

The next few days may well bring the odd shower but without any significant rainfall from today's weather system, there isn't actually much in the way of rainfall in our forecasts before next weekend at the earliest, and we're now not even guaranteed to get anything then.

Clearly, this is now a very serious situation that is developing and unless we get some much needed rainfall here very soon, that situation is only going to get even worse.

At the end of August our reservoirs were at 36% (68% last year). I expect that to rise quite dramatically this month

Your reservoir levels in the East are at 53% so low but not dramatically and will of course fill up during the Autumn 

For that to happen though, we will need to be getting a lot more rain than what we’re currently getting and I’m not really all that convinced that this will actually end up happening, especially given that the longer term model output isn’t really showing any great signal for a particularly wet autumn in these parts which is required in order for our river and reservoir levels to be able to recover in any way.

They might well but the rain doesn't seem to be getting to the east atm. I wonder if that is because lows aren't progressing east into the N Sea like they used to but more often dumbelling around the east Atlantic.

As for this particular system, the rain on that did pep up a little bit later on, but only as the back edge of that weather system was in the process of clearing away from here.

As a result, we have ended up getting around 2.0 mm of rain from that at Edinburgh Gogarbank which is nowhere near enough to ease the ongoing water scarcity situation although that is at least better than nothing at all and that at least gave the gardens a little bit of a soaking for a short period of time.

As I write though, the rain has still not quite reached the far NE of Scotland where the water scarcity situation is at its worst as far as Scotland is concerned but hopefully, there will at least be something from that for Doctormog to report in Aberdeen a little bit later on.

As mentioned yesterday, SEPA have just released their weekly water scarcity report and as I mentioned yesterday, a number of locations in the east of Scotland have had their status upgraded from moderate water scarcity status to significant water scarcity status which is the highest level which you can get to with that.

However, it's not all been bad news everywhere. There was some rain in many places yesterday and that has helped a couple of locations in the Scottish Borders to have their status downgraded from significant water scarcity status to moderate water scarcity status. However, SEPA have put out a further warning to say that unless there is some sustained rainfall during the next week, a number of other locations which are currently on moderate water scarcity are likely to also see their status upgraded from moderate water scarcity status to significant water scarcity status.

In addition to that, there are no other areas which have had their water scarcity status downgraded this week. In the north of Scotland, one area has had its status upgraded from early warning status to alert status. Furthermore, the Shetland Islands in addition to the far SW of Scotland have had their status upgraded from normal to early warning status.

All other areas which I haven't mentioned here remain unchanged from last week in terms of their water scarcity status and this means that for now at least, Edinburgh remains on moderate water scarcity status.

Taking a look at the SEPA map, it seems to be a west/east split for water scarcity. Given the very unsettled outlook I expect that even those drier eastern areas will start to see increasing amounts of rain. Probably nowhere near as much as western Scotland but probably enough to ease any drought concerns. 

There is no other reason to be so discrete that I can think of. It's never metered when it comes from a hydrant. I wonder how much they paid though for the water? The tanker must hold X amount but I'm almost certain the night time extraction was unaccounted for and they hoped no one would see them do it. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cq5jg9vy1n0o 

Edit. Just seen your post in another thread DEW.

Re-posted from General Politics, where it was being used to deny that all billionaires were leaving Britain.

A different case to show how the very rich can act entirely within the law but have a tin ear when it comes to the concerns of the community in which they live.

Water firm bans tankers from transporting water for billionaire's lake

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cq5jg9vy1n0o 

The BBC has been told that those tankers went to Conholt Park, a 2,500 acre estate owned by Stephen Schwarzman – who is one of the world's richest men and a financial backer of US President Donald Trump.

There's a public footpath through the middle of Conholt Park in N Hampshire so if anyone wants to walk up and down with a placard they can do so. But I suppose it shows that there is at least one billionaire moving back in. Could it  that he pays tax in the US?

If you saw this week's weekly livestream from the Met Office though, you will have seen that there is now a growing signal for high pressure to build towards the end of the month and the signals for the autumn as a whole seem to suggest that rainfall amounts are likely to still be average to slightly below average rather than above average.

With the current ongoing unsettled spell, it may well be the case that the water scarcity statuses in the east of Scotland might be slightly downgraded over that time as a result. In order for those concerns to be eased altogether though, these areas are going to need to be getting a sustained spell of above average rainfall over quite a considerable period of time and I'm just not seeing any signals from the latest model output for that to actually be the case.

Indeed, a number of areas which were at significant water scarcity status last week have now had their statuses downgraded to only moderate water scarcity status as a result, especially in Fife and East Lothian with the various restrictions on water extraction also being lifted as a result.

In addition to that, a number of areas which were on moderate water scarcity status last week have now had their status downgraded to alert status with those areas including Edinburgh and the Borders.

There has even been a couple of areas which have had their statuses downgraded from moderate water scarcity status all the way down to early warning status with those areas including the city of Inverness.

Further west, those areas which were at early warning status have now had their statuses downgraded to normal status with the city of Glasgow being included in that.

However, we are not out of the woods with that just yet and there is still a large part of NE Scotland which is still at significant water scarcity status with water abstraction restrictions still in place as a result, although this status is now confined to an area which is to the north of Aberdeen.

Anyone who follows the Met Office's videos and livestreams on YouTube will have seen that they put out a very good deep dive video earlier on this week which went into how the rainfall deficit has built up across the UK throughout this year. That video shows the recovery from that which has been made during this month across the south half of the UK in particular, but also goes on to show that there has been very little effect on that deficit just recently across the north of Scotland in particular which continues to be much drier than average.

That is shown up really well in today's SEPA report as far as Scotland is concerned because as a result of that, the Orkney Islands along with Thurso have had their water scarcity status upgraded from alert to moderate water scarcity status with the Shetland Islands and Wick having their status being upgraded from early warning status to alert status.

This is once again showing that a period of sustained rainfall is needed throughout the country is the overall situation across the whole of Scotland is going to improve.

As for here, some rain is expected at the weekend for which there is even an official Met Office yellow warning for rain which is due to come into effect at that time, so hopefully this will help to bring some further recovery and a further resulting downgrade in the water scarcity status.

However, the outlook beyond that is now starting to look much drier as high pressure builds to our north and eventually becomes setup over Scandinavia. That is something to keep a very close eye on as any further extended dry periods could easily raise those concerns about water scarcity once again with those statuses possibly being upgraded again as a result.

We had local flooding yesterday (albeit of the surface-water type)

Been away for a week "up north" and nothing seems to have changed down here. Just 9mm of rain whilst I was away and normal service returned today with intense rainfall in the S.E. corner missing me as usual by a mile or two to the East and drowning Canterbury yet again! Whilst I was away it was mostly showery with the odd heavy squall but ok until I went to Kielder Forest on Thursday when there was more continuous moderate rain and rivers in Northumberland seemed to be filling which is good news for them. YTD rainfall 287mm.

The latest GFS op run has 4 mm of rain forecast here over the next 10 days. That’s not going to do much to address the water scarcity .

Personally I don’t like spells of wet weather but it’s getting to (or past) the stage where it is needed.

Yes, and that is also not helped in any way by this weekend's weather front passing mostly to our south and thus delivering nothing other than just a little bit of slight drizzle here in Edinburgh and completely missing most of the rest of Scotland altogether.

With the outlook beyond this weekend looking drier once again, I fear that whilst the last SEPA water scarcity report (as linked to in your post) showed a bit of promise, the next such report is not going to be so good and I fear that there are going to be some upgrades to the water scarcity status in many areas in that next report as a result, possibly with some areas returning to significant water scarcity status.

As for here in Edinburgh, this month has been wetter than of late up until this point, though still not all that massively wet. With the next week or so looking drier once again, I therefore wouldn't be surprised if this month was to still end up being drier than average once again despite it looking until now as though we might actually get a wetter than average month at long last.

It's therefore clear from this that wetter than average months just don't happen any more and yet, that is something which very badly needs to change if the overall water scarcity situation is going to improve in any way.

I think I know what you mean, namely 'wetter than the average established in the period 2000 - 2020' (or whatever) but some months must always be wetter than a current average - that's the definition!

But you have a point. If the rolling average of rainfall is decreasing and continuing to decrease, there is a major problem for the provision of public services which were set up in the expectation of a climate which would continue with the same parameters as it had always done.

Against which, you have the old saying "None so surely pays his debt / As wet to dry and dry to wet". You've no doubt seen on this site long and loud complaints from the south of England about the drought here since the beginning of May (and, dare I say it, probably more severe than that in Scotland). But there was so much winter rainfall that the local chalk stream kept running into July as the last of the water seeped out of the chalk. Normally it gives up in June.

Perhaps we should be planning for longer types of the same sort of weather hot/cold, dry/wet, within an envelope of  increasing global temperatures. That pattern was suggested to me by a meteorologist friend of my mother-in-law back in the 1990s, and don't think he's been proved wrong yet.

The local borehole in the chalk which because of its porosity smooths out seasonal averages is only a metre or two below its expected level for for the time of year, in an annual range of ca 30m, despite the drought which has been having dire effects on shallow-rooted crops.