Here in Edinburgh, we are now into day 18 of the latest official absolute drought at both Edinburgh Gogarbank and the botanic gardens in Edinburgh and even here, I can see the effects of this lack of rainfall just about everywhere I go now as the grass has now gone into more of a yellow/brown colour in quite a lot of places.

This is despite the rainfall figures for June coming out as just very slight below average here. However, most of this actually fell in just one single overnight period where over 30 mm of rain was dumped upon us by just one single low pressure system. I doubt that this would be enough to get through in the manner in which it is actually needed and so, we can more or less say that it's been dry since the second half of April here.

EDIT:

The gardens in this part of the world desperately need some rain now to the point where I had to decide whether or not, this need was greater than my own need for England to be beaten in the World Cup, it would be difficult to choose between them just now.

I’ve never known the grass round here to look so brown/dead!

Virtually unheard of in these parts. 

I’ve never known the grass round here to look so brown/dead!

Virtually unheard of in these parts. 

Same here in Higher Blackley only grass that is still green is grass heavily shaded by trees or buildings.

I’ve never known the grass round here to look so brown/dead!

Virtually unheard of in these parts. 

I've been here since 1991 and I don't ever recall everything being as scorched up as it is at the moment, not even in 1995. The south side of Winter Hill looks very different, quite brown (black in places!) compared to it's normal green. It's like living in Essex!

I’ve never known the grass round here to look so brown/dead!

Virtually unheard of in these parts. 

Even in 76, when we'd done a house move from Manchester to Maidstone at Whitsun but I was doing a weekend commute to finish off the job up north, Manchester remained quite green with average temps when Kent was totally brown and sweltering.

All the cornfields around here look bleached rather than golden.  I have to wonder if the crops are totally ruined.  Other crops are still being irrigated and have been since April, which was also quite dry here. 

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/hosepipe-ban-manchester-when-why-14884841

This in the Manchester Evening News, I did wonder what was happening over the hills where the resovoirs are.

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/hosepipe-ban-manchester-when-why-14884841

This in the Manchester Evening News, I did wonder what was happening over the hills where the resovoirs are.

Still too early to say whether we’ll get any meaningful rainfall next week. 

It’s certainly possible. 

 

Still too early to say whether we’ll get any meaningful rainfall next week. 

It’s certainly possible. 

Its bone dry here. I am wondering if the roof tops are visible yet in the one which is a flooded village back in 1995 apparently they were visible. They do look pretty low from the pics. I am in Higher Blackely so North Manchester towards Rochdale and Oldham.

 

Still too early to say whether we’ll get any meaningful rainfall next week. 

It’s certainly possible. 

One way to guarantee rainfall is to arrange for a TV interview to be done at a dried up reservoir. These are traditionally carried out in the pouring rain :)

 

Its bone dry here. I am wondering if the roof tops are visible yet in the one which is a flooded village back in 1995 apparently they were visible. They do look pretty low from the pics. I am in Higher Blackely so North Manchester towards Rochdale and Oldham.

I remember in the late 80's drought they show lot of houses appeared when water levels dropped and taking the domestic flight from Heathrow to Leeds I see lot of lakes almost dried up as you can see more shorelines around it.

There's an emerging theme in the model output of heavy, quite slow-moving showers on an increasing number of days.

Friday's been looking more and more capable of producing a fair few of those across E&W, and Monday onward shows some decent potential at least for a couple of days. Always that hit-and-miss characteristic though (organised frontal rain is now looking to be restricted to the NW, if even there).

So the parched look to our lands may take on a more patchwork look by the middle of next week if the models are heading along the right lines. 

 

I remember in the late 80's drought they show lot of houses appeared when water levels dropped and taking the domestic flight from Heathrow to Leeds I see lot of lakes almost dried up as you can see more shorelines around it.

it was the same thing up here in 1995 apparently!

Apart from one overnight shower back in early June which produced 1.5mm of rain we have had no rain since before the may bank holiday some 6 weeks ago and it doesn't look as though we are going to get any in the foreseeable future. This summer is in the dryness respect is comparable with 1976. 

Technically drought has ended here as we have a very underwhelming light drizzle! lol 

No rain here yet still. Hoping to last until Monday at least which is certainly at least a month in my mind. Wonder how long the land will go green after the first rains? Will kind of miss it, its kept the weeds at bay in the countryside!