As of this week, there are three areas which are still at significant water scarcity status and in those areas, restrictions on water abstraction are still ongoing. However, a number of areas which were at significant water scarcity status last week have now had their status downgraded to either moderate water scarcity status or even all the way down to alert status. Furthermore, all of those areas including NE Fife and East Lothian which were at moderate water scarcity status last week have now had their status down to alert status. This means that even those areas which are still at moderate water status are now confined to just a handful of areas in Aberdeenshire to the north of Aberdeen, and to parts of Speyside.

Meanwhile, Edinburgh along with the Borders, Midlothian, West Lothian, Clackmannanshire, most of Fife and parts of Tayside have now had their status downgraded from alert status to early warning status. In addition to that, all areas which I haven't mentioned here are now at either early warning status or normal status with some areas having had their status downgraded from early warning status to normal status.

Whilst this is quite a big improvement from recent weeks though, we have gone into yet another dry spell and SEPA have warned that the situation could well deteriorate very quickly once again if this dry spell lasts for any length of time. Groundwater levels continue to be very low for the time of the year and if we are see that being properly replenished over time, we need to be seeing some above average rain being sustained over the rest of this autumn and the coming winter.

"

Richard O'Callaghan, area environment manager at the EA, said: "Autumn and winter may feel like there is an excess of water at hand, but the climate is changing, and we must be sensible about water use all the time.

"A few bursts of recent rainfall do not undo several dry months of cumulative impact.

"It will take sustained rainfall to address prolonged dry weather and replenish reservoirs and rivers."

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It has.

Hope the forecasts of rain will come to fruition this time. 

The lakes across the road are low.

With last week's report, there were some signs of improvement in the overall water scarcity situation due to some rainfall which came about from Storm Amy but that rainfall was only very short-lived and for a proper recovery to take place, we need to be getting an above average amount of rain for a sustained period of time.

In the last week, there has been barely any rainfall at all with a total of just 0.6 mm of rain being recorded in the last week at Edinburgh Gogarbank (all of that actually came from some very fine drizzle which fell despite us being under high pressure throughout this period).

The result of this is that unlike last week, there are no further improvements in this week's report. Luckily, the situation hasn't actually got any worse this week but that is probably only due to the lack of sunshine over the last week and the fact that with the days now being much shorter, any sunshine is now a lot weaker which means that even with the lack of rain, the ground is less likely to dry out any further for the time being.

However, there are three areas in NE Scotland which  continue to remain at significant water scarcity status with water extraction restrictions still in place as a result whilst a number of adjacent areas remain at moderate water scarcity status. East Lothian, NE Fife and the city of Dundee remain at alert status for water scarcity with Edinburgh and the Borders remaining at early warning status.

The only change from last week comes with one area in the far north of Scotland having its status upgraded from normal status to early warning status.

The message from this week's report is therefore perfectly clear and shows that whilst the overall situation might not actually get any worse for now, it is also not going to start getting any better until we at least start to get that much needed rainfall which will make that happen because the longer we go without that happening, the more likely it is that the overall situation will only end up getting worse again in the end.

This means that there are still three locations in NE Scotland at significant water scarcity status and in those locations, water abstraction restrictions continue to remain in force. In addition to that, Edinburgh and the Borders continues to remain at early warning status with East Lothian still at alert status.

As I keep on saying on here every single week, this is a situation which is not going to improve in any way until we get some sustained above average rainfall but even as I write, this is still not happening. We now have only just over a week left of what should be our wettest month of the year on average and yet, Edinburgh Gogarbank (just as an example) has still only had not much more than a third of its 1991-2020 October average during this month so far.

For there to be any hope of any improvement in this situation, that is something which needs to change and until that happens, the overall situation will continue to be very serious. Yet because that doesn’t appear the case so much in England now, you won’t see a single mention of that now in the mainstream media with all of the focus there now being on what’s happening with Storm Benjiman.

As is so often the case, the mainstream media continue build up today’s story of Storm Benjiman as a Uk event even though this has really just been an England only event as this storm has largely bypassed Scotland, thus depriving those worst affected locations of some very badly needed rainfall once again.

All of that is just typical of the English biased so-called “UK” mainstream media.

It's not even been that, and wasn't forecast to be any more than East Anglia and the SE for strong winds at least. here it's been windy but nothing more, as forecast, a pretty normal October day really. Of course if you read the likes of the Daily Express you're going to get '70mph storm batters the UK' but that's the Daily Express for you!

However, there has been some welcome and much needed rainfall in the past week, especially from Storm Benjamin last Friday. For here in Scotland, SEPA have just released their latest water scarcity report and thanks to that rainfall which I have just mentioned, the situation is now much improved from other recent reports.

A lot of last Friday's rainfall fell in the east and NE of Scotland and because of that, all of the areas which were at either significant water scarcity or moderate water scarcity status have now had their status downgraded to alert status. As a result, all of the water abstraction restrictions have now been lifted in those areas which were at significant water scarcity status and although there are some areas which are still at alert level, that is now the highest water scarcity status level which is in place in Scotland.

In addition to that, East Lothian and a handful of other areas have had their water scarcity status downgraded from alert status to early warning status, thereby joining Edinburgh and the rest of the Lothian region and the Borders at early warning status.

There are also a few areas which have had their status downgraded from early warning status to normal which means that the situation across the vast majority of Scotland away from the east and SE has now returned to normal.

With all of that in mind, SEPA have announced that this will be their final weekly water scarcity update for now although they will give a further update on the situation at the end of the autumn to give an indication of how conditions throughout the autumn are affecting things.

We still have a very large rainfall deficit in place after all and we will need to be getting consistent and plentiful amounts of rain throughout the rest of the autumn and the winter if there is to be any chance of those deficits being replenished going into 2026.

https://www.sussexexpress.co.uk/community/from-tvs-to-trolleys-lavant-chalk-stream-gets-a-major-clean-up-5376323 

Still dry, bar brief run-off from roads after heavy rain. Even in a normal year I wouldn't expect it to start running until late November once the groundwater level is about 50m aod.

The groundwater level at Chilgrove has almost bottomed out, up and down a little in the last few days but still a net decrease over 5 days of 0.12m. Currently the level is  34.72m aod, and the lowest ever recorded at this date is 33.97m aod. A really wet fortnight can bring the level up by 10m or so after a delay while rain sinks in. That hasn't happened yet but with 144.4mm recorded in October things should start happening soon.

Winterborne Houghton supports fish tanks and watercress beds despite being near the head of the valley under Bulbarrow while the valley lower down dries out.

Watercourses seem fairly normal for time of year but you do wonder if it could be rather like 75/76 where the problems in 1976  were as much due to exceptional dry winter as lack of rain through summer.

- in short we need a couple of wetter than average months even though it is not exactly something to look forward too

The geology that creates these streams is interesting. Houghton Trout farm...  Recently sold I think.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_Winterborne 

"does this mean that in such areas the chalk stream can start flowing before that in the main valley?" A good question. The nearest seasonal stream to me is still dry where it passes where William Barnes once lived. Winterborne Came.

And yes, it doesn't of course feel like a drought Four which it isn't but Wessex Water worry about next year as they should and do. Will it be a 75/76 winter kind of repeat? An economic and societal disaster if it is, with the massive population increase since then.

9mm of rain in past 24 hours IMBY. Every little bit helps of course but the recharge rate is excruciatingly slow.

https://www.met.ie/climate/available-data/monthly-data 

Meteireann have a useful feature showing rainfall at various stations in the Republic. The only months that had significant dry spells were May and August. Parts of the South and East did have longer dry spells than the bald statistics might indicate. It was dry enough locally for farmers to need to supplement grass with feed at times this summer. We also had hosepipe bans. However, Ireland seems to be worlds apart from much of the UK. Our summer was considerably wetter than the UK and our rainfall has been above average in September and October. I have no idea what level our reservoirs are at but I doubt that they're far from full.

So while we know that Eastern England(extending into Eastern Scotland) and much of Southern England are still dry, what's it like elsewhere? I assume that the rest of the UK has no shortage any longer?

Yes, you're right. Here in Scotland, SEPA stopped producing weekly water scarcity reports for this year almost a couple of weeks ago. With these reports over the last few months, the majority of Scotland was already showing normal conditions but this was mainly due to there being a lot more rain to our west which meant that it was really just in western Scotland (and to a certain extent, central Scotland as well) which saw the situation actually returning to normal over that period.

Further east, it has been a completely different story and it has to be remembered that even as I write, it is still much less than a month ago since parts of NE Scotland in particular were at significant water scarcity status according to SEPA with restrictions on water abstraction in place in those areas as a result. In more recent weeks, that situation has now improved slightly thanks to some recent rainfall but across the east of Scotland in particular (including here in Edinburgh) there continues to be a very large rainfall deficit in place which actually stretches all the way back to the summer of 2024 (here in Edinburgh for example, you actually have to go all the way back to the spring of 2024 to find our last wetter than average season).

Today has been a wet day here in Edinburgh and so far, this month is running a bit wetter than average here, but we have been in this exact same situation on many occasions in recent months, only to find the month as a whole still ending up being drier than average overall as a result of yet another build of high pressure later on in that month which then results in another fairly lengthy period with little or no rainfall here.

The issue we have therefore has nothing to do with us not getting any rainfall at all because we are getting that every now and then. However, this rainfall just hasn't been falling on a consistent enough basis to be able to give us any months which are actually any wetter than average overall, and this is something which needs to change if the overall deficit is to even start to be made up.

That may well not cause any further issues for now but my worry is that if we don't at least make some progress during this month and the coming winter towards making up that deficit, we could well end up with a water scarcity situation during next spring and summer which ends up being even worse than what we have experienced this year.

Interesting. Anyway after yesterdays and last nights rain 19.5mm, I feel much more relaxed about the water situation here. It feels like with the forecast rain in the next few days, aquifer recovery might be turning the corner so to speak. I'm not sure about the drier East Anglia though.

In inches I think and understand from those better placed than me, that we need about 4.5 inches a month until the end of March to ensure restrictions here will be unlikely in the event of a dry summer next year.