https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cmq56755ve09t 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clye8l9422no 

Total chaos on the roads round here with traffic diverted from the A31. Got held up for an hour with a load of straw on a fairly narrow lane which was teeming with diverted traffic. The last two loads to collect from the field are going to have to wait as today was annoying to put it mildly.

Unbelievably somebody had chucked an empty beer bottle away in the rough where I was playing golf yesterday evening. I picked it up and put it in my bag. There are some unpleasant idiots out there.

Sorry Jiries, I realise this is not the UIA, and your posts in the heatwave thread reflect your enthusiasm for temperature extremes which many of us are excited about. But I feel the drought thread is full of people's comments to the negative, farmers and smallholders having livelihoods compromised, huge expanses of precious habitat being destroyed, ironic water restrictions and ancient trees losing limbs, and all you can do is talk about your plans to walk on a dried-up lake. I concur with others that we shouldn't have to shy away from excitement about temperature extremes, but surely you must realise the drought brings no benefit to anyone.

I also acknlowedge the MOD, heatwave thread and drought thread do get crossover/ muddle which might account for your positive view of the drought.

Shame we couldnt hold out until September

Rainfall continues to be in very short supply here and that is once again reflected in this week's report as two areas in the city of Aberdeen and the surrounding Aberdeenshire region have had their status upgraded all the way up to significant water scarcity status with water extraction restrictions now being imposed in those areas as a result. In addition to that, the south of the Scottish Borders including the town of Hawick remains at significant water scarcity status due to very low river levels on the River Teviot (the main river which runs through Hawick) and the Ettrick Water which are two major tributaries of the River Tweed. In those areas, water extraction restrictions continue to remain in place.

In addition to that, two areas in SW Scotland have had their water scarcity status upgraded to moderate water scarcity status with the warning that these areas could be further upgraded all the way up to significant water scarcity status if there is no sustained rainfall within the next week.

For now, Edinburgh remains at moderate water scarcity status along with the rest of the Lothian region and the north of the Borders away from River Teviot and Ettrick Water catchment areas.

However, it's now all bad news as the town of Annan in SW Scotland has actually had its status downgraded to early warning status with the Loch Ness and River Ness (the main river which passes through the city of Inverness) catchment area returning to normal.

Very interesting when it dried up so you can see what on the surface and if cracking up mud can walk on it.  I only did little in Hogmill River sides and one part of the stream from the old Mill in Ewell village before this wretch Epsom council started to pump water in 24 hours a day since 1996 onward I never get a chance to walk on the river bed or dried up lake bed.  I spoke to my old neighour and he said still full and flowing as they still pumping water which I have no idea why it allowed to when we got hose pipe ban.  It seem a waste of water pumping it, they could just pump to keep the lake itself up for the fish while the rest let it dry out as there no fish on the Hogmills it just rocky and pebbles bed.

https://weather.metoffice.gov.uk/maps-and-charts/rainfall-radar-forecast-map 

Across the road from me is a massive area of gorse, dry vegetation and pine trees. Seeing how easy it is for fires to jump roads I find it stressful living so close. The sooner this record drought is over, the better, even if it means holidaymakers being inconvenienced by rain. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3d32np89z4o 

Arson

https://sentencingcouncil.org.uk/guidelines/arson-criminal-damage-by-fire/ 

Temporary ban on sale of disposable BBQs over wildfire risk

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0jlyqdj6geo 

What took the Government so long?

I’m no defender of this pathetic government, but do you seriously believe this directive will make any impact??! Me neither  

That can only be true if you think everyone will ignore the new rule; I think that’s improbable, which means the risk of an accidental (thoughtless) fire being started is reduced.

But why sell disposable barbecues in the first place?  Another truly stupid invention, up alongside patio heaters and leaf blowers.

I think they are superb.  If you are only cooking for one especially.  No mess, no hassle.  I enjoyed using them all summer, but sadly my Tesco removed them just before the World Cup final, 18 July.   

I'm glad not to have to suffer the stink of them, proper barbecues too. Or see the mess people leave about in public places. But I see your point WRT dinner for one. Beast.

Temporary ban on disposable BBQs as military deployed to help battle wildfires - updated 1 hour ago.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0jlyqdj6geo 

Personally I find an air fryer works just fine. If I were into barbecues (and I'm not), I'd have a proper one at home. I can't see any situation being so urgent that you just have to have a barbecue right here, right now, in a public park (for example). 

The drought goes on here. I watched enviously as a popup shower passed a couple of miles away, dumping several mm of rain over the Swale - not much use for us on Sheppey! And, of course, the little bits and pieces of rain scattered over the SE have gone "whoosh" and developed into torrential downpours over the North Sea. 

The Telegraph has an interesting article today. The headline is the usual click-bait for the 76ers (as I think of them, those who insist 1976 was the summer to end all summers, that "it's just summer" these days, that the greenhouses of Kew, exhausts at Heathrow and invisible-to-me but apparently massive solar farms at Frittenden and other class 4 or 5 WMO stations are solely responsible for the media reporting high temperatures)...

...but to my surprise the article is quite good and explains how we're now seeing a "flash drought", how assumptions were that we'd instead see a chain of several dry winters in a row, and it details all the things done since 1976 to mitigate things.

This summer isn’t as bad as the drought of 1976

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2026/08/15/this-summer-isnt-as-bad-as-the-drought-of-1976/

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/0b3ce9ae1709f1dd 

(I don't know whether the link above works for more than one person, but it's worth a go. The usual archive services don't work on the Telegraph any more.)

If it hasn't then today marks 59 days without rain. 

If the GFS is on the money then there's an outside chance that the 73 days at Mile End in Kent may be broken.

Also for those fans of weather lore - it looks like St Swithins day has been pretty much spot on for the South of the UK! Only 9 more days to go to make 40 dry days and nights.

I dont know, but I havent had any recordable rain since that huge T storm during the second heatwave in June. So about the same time.