Dews don't really break droughts IMO. I read that both the Met Office and BBC predict rain heavy at times, yet the % chance of rain is generally modest to minimal for here. Hope the percentages rise this week but after the 1st October the dry returns in strength perhaps.

The local reservoirs to me are at ~20% full. Our land's, local land's, most reliable springs are dry, the streams likewise. Will our bore hole keep going for next year? Not unless we get 400mm this winter is my guess. We might yet see that much rain but there is no sign of it atm - the opposite tbh.

Yikes.

Looks dry, more or less, until the end of October and then who knows?

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dry-weather-and-drought-in-england-2026-summary-reports/dry-weather-and-drought-in-england-18-to-24-september-2026 

On the England map the orange shading shows the situation well enough.

The map is well worth looking at.

Although our friends in the north have now had a reasonable amount of rain(in the south we haven't even had that) so surface features such as grass growth and germination of field-sown crops can proceed, that rain isn't yet getting into reservoirs, and public water supplies are still effectively operating under drought conditions.

There are some places in Norfolk are slight below sea levels but not as extreme low as Jericho, Palestine which sit at below 400m sea levels while Death Valley is nearly 300m that why when I watch the rainfall radar it always break up to the west of the Valley and regrow again on other side, it seem clouds and rain find it hard to push in areas below sea levels that why Death Valley get little rain most of the time and once in a while major rain event if they have power to push in this areas.  That the reason why the East are much drier and then it rain a lot once it get to North Sea.  I learned this from school about the sea levels height and can't remember how low is in Norfolk, maybe 50-100mm below?

Good to hear from you, though I have been missing your support elsewhere. 😉

We have just had the first significant rain of the Autumn on 8th September which was long overdue after the hottest and driest Summer on record at Elmley. The breeding birds have faired relatively well with a brilliant season for lapwing, yellow wagtails and skylarks as well as our barn owls. However, the sustained hot, dry Summer has had several significant impacts on the Reserve's aquatic species, which have been amplified by the relatively low amount of winter rain and a very dry summer of 2025.  The marshes are currently very dry and the remaining pools are now anaerobic (lack oxygen) and stagnant. This has caused a significant number of small fish and larger eels to die. In addition, botulism has broken out amongst ducks kept for shooting on a neighboring farm - this is often caused by vegetation rotting in very warm water and unnaturally dense concentration of birds around the scarce pools. They have worked hard to contain the spread but it has had an impact on several of our wide species, most notably the resident ducks sharing the remaining pools and the predators like marsh harriers which feed on sick ducks. It appears the worst is over and we continue to monitor the situation and act to prevent further spread when necessary.

It’s still pretty dire here. The water level in our pond continues to fall and it’s by far the lowest in our ten years here.  Ours is fed by a couple of pipes that tap into the groundwater just up the lane from us and a few metres higher, and they’ve been dry for months now.

The larger pond about 200 metres up the slight slope from us is just as bad.

As there has been some rain in the last week, this week's report is much improved from other recent reports. As a result, all of the areas which were previously at significant water scarcity status have now had their status downgraded to either moderate water scarcity status or alert status.

This leaves us with not a single area at significant water scarcity status which means that all of the previous water extraction restrictions which were in place, have now been lifted as a result.

However, this still comes with a warning that the Lower Tweed catchment area could once again have its status upgraded to significant water scarcity status within the next week unless there is some sustained rainfall in that area over that time.

However, the highest status which any area now has is moderate water scarcity status and even that status is now confined to East Lothian and the Borders.

Edinburgh is still at alert status with Fife, Clackmannanshire, Tayside, the south of Aberdeenshire and the city of Aberdeen also having their status downgraded to alert status.

A couple of areas have had their status downgraded to early warning status and in fact, it is parts of the north Aberdeenshire and the Moray Firth area, along with a large part of central Scotland which are currently at early warning status.

Two areas including Speyside (an area which was really badly affected by last year's water scarcity situation) have now completely returned to normal status and everywhere else which has not been mentioned on this post so far, is currently also at normal status.

From that, it is clear that the worst affected areas are now really in SE Scotland, rather than being in the east of Scotland more generally and that fits in quite nicely with the fact that large parts of England and Wales are still very much in a drought situation.

Here in Scotland, more rain is still going to be needed in order for the recovery to continue but now, river and groundwater levels continue to be at average or high levels across much of the country, but remain low to very low in much of the east of Scotland.

The positives - 90% of the lawn has greened up so it looks to the casual observer/insert whatever you wish like things are getting better.

The reality - another month of well below rainfall. Apart from 2023 the warmest September for at least the last decade. The models showing the next 10 days with about 3mm of rain, rain is always beyond the reliable on the models.

Would you care to have another Beastial stab as to when the rains will arrive?

I will stick my neck out and forecast a wet summer next year for the south of the UK. Based purely on having a serious garden rainwater collection system in place by then.

Friday is looking wet, but probably just enough to keep the grass happy

No floods in Bahrain, it was Malaysia. 

Oops! 😳😳

If not much rain this Winter it will be serious next year IF we get a hot dry summer.

If you read old farming related books ,talk of drought is quite a common occurrence.

if a dry winter happen this time I should be expecting the water company to stop whining about it and start following other countries example with water rationing cuts like in Cyprus before and even in the Philippines during dry seasons.   This way will force those who kept wasting water like over water gardens, long showers and etc.  A cut at certain times will change their behaviour on water use.  

Is Darren on holiday? Not seen any posts from him for a while.

Hope he's ok.  He got the hump on the AI thread and hasn't posted since. But he maybe on one of his Japan trips

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cmvg6dwwj2jzo