Not really surprised given just how much rain has fallen.

A month and 5.5 days into the new year and we have already seen over 200mm of rain. That's more than a quarter of our annual rainfall!! Locally some will have seen around a 3rd of their annual rainfall in the last month.

Well, we're certainly getting our annual totals, and then some, but its hardly balanced! 

Well fingers crossed 🤞a good summer may balance it out in your area. 

At that time, much of the UK was experiencing a very wet winter including much of NE Scotland as a result of persistent SE winds, especially during February. Here in the SE of Scotland and especially here in Edinburgh where we were much more sheltered from those winds, it was a much drier picture and so, the winter of 2025/26 was drier than average here. The meant that last year's very large rainfall deficit never even came close to being completely made up and the drier than average winter meant that we also then started to build up a deficit for this year as well, albeit not as big as last year's deficit at that same stage.

The first half of this spring was slightly wetter than average here at a time when other parts of the UK were already becoming much drier but this was a time when we were approaching what would normally be our driest period of the year on average anyway and since our rainfall totals were only slightly above average during this period, that did virtually nothing in terms of making up the overall rainfall deficit.

In addition to that, it has now dried up yet again, resulting in April being drier than average after looking for a long time as though it was going to be slightly wetter than average. So far this month, we've had a little bit of rain and it's not been as dry here as it has been in some parts of the UK. However, this month is still running quite a bit drier than average once again. Everything is becoming rock solid once again with the ongoing lack of rainfall so even here, we could really do with some much needed rainfall for the gardens.

With that in mind though (which takes me to the very reason why I have resurrected this thread), SEPA have now started their weekly water scarcity reports once again. The first such report was issued last Friday (8 May 2026) and can be viewed here . It is now likely that these reports will now be issued once a week at least until the end of the summer, and I will continue to summarise them here as I find out about them.

Since the situation isn't yet as bad as it was at this time last year, most of Scotland according to this week's report is still at normal status as regards water scarcity, but there are some areas which have already been raised to Early Warning status for that. Given what I have said above, it should come as no surprise that SE Scotland is one such area with this area including all of the Lothians (including Edinburgh) and the Borders.

However, there are some parts of the west coast are also at Early Warning status and despite the exceptionally wet winter in NE Scotland, parts of NE Scotland along with the east and north of Scotland are also at Early Warning status for water scarcity. So far, there isn't a single area which is at alert status or higher but unless we start to get some much needed rain very soon, that situation is only going to deteriorate over time with those higher levels of water scarcity status being achieved before too long.

Yes, many of the public just don't seem to get that a rainfall deficit is cumulative.

Oh we will. Just up here, that's all.

3.8mm today, with a peak rate of 43mm/hour around 6PM. I'll take that with open arms, even though it's not exactly what you'd call a deluge!

The last couple of days has been quite wet here in Edinburgh but that rain has been largely showery in nature which means that it has been very localised in terms of its impacts, and the rest of the last week has been largely dry here. That in turn has led to a slight overall deterioration in the water scarcity situation since this time last week.

Here in Edinburgh and down in the Borders, the status remains unchanged at Early Warning status but a number of other areas have also been upgraded from normal status to Early Warning status including Fife, Aberdeen and much of Aberdeenshire, the rest of the Central Belt, the Orkney Islands and even into SW Scotland.

In addition to that, the far east of Aberdeenshire has even had it status upgraded from Early Warning status to Alert status for water scarcity.

At this stage, the situation is still not as bad as it was at this time last year but river levels are already quite low in a number of areas, especially in the north and east of Scotland with groundwater levels running low across parts of Fife and Tayside.

During the past week, we have had  some rain but as has been the case for quite a while now, the vast majority of that rainfall has been showery in nature and therefore, very localised.

As a result, there are no real changes from last week with river and groundwater levels running normal in some areas, but low to very low in others.

The extreme east of Aberdeenshire continues to remain at alert level for water scarcity with quite a number of other areas having their status upgraded from normal status to early warning status.

This means that the vast majority of Scotland including Edinburgh and the Borders is now at early warning status for water status with only a small part of the west of Scotland in addition to the Shetland Islands remaining at normal status.

I would imagine though, that SEPA have taken a more cautious approach here given the latest forecasts of upcoming warmer, drier and possibly sunnier weather. If that forecast comes up, this may well cause further issues in the next week or so with many areas seeing their water scarcity status being upgraded as a result.

It has been consistently sunny and until a few days ago, it was also quite hot here. More importantly though, it has also been consistently dry with a couple of grass fires breaking out on Arthur's Seat in the past few days as a result. This has to be taken very serious indeed, because this is something which is only going to get worse over time as long as these conditions continue and with that, it is surely only going to be a matter of time before there is an increasing number of casualties from that, with that including an increasing number of fatalities as well. Luckily, that hasn't happened so far, but I don't think that we will continue to be lucky in that regard indefinitely.

With that in mind, SEPA have released this week's water scarcity report (which can be viewed here ) and given what I have just said above, you would not expect that to make for very good reading as a result. Luckily, there are still some areas at normal status in the west of Scotland and in the Shetland Islands, but one area in the west of Scotland has had its status upgraded from normal status to early warning status.

However, the biggest change here comes from the fact that quite a number of areas have now had their status upgraded from early warning status to alert status including Fife, East Lothian, a much larger part of Aberdeenshire and even a small part of Central Scotland. So far, Edinburgh and the Borders are still clinging on to their early warning status for now but as long as these conditions persist, that is unlikely to be the case for very long.

Not surprising, there has been no areas which have had their status downgraded this week. As long as these conditions continue, this situation will only get worse over time with it then being only a matter of time before we start to see some areas having their status upgraded all the way up to moderate or possibly even significant water scarcity status.

The rivers are running quite low now and if these conditions don't improve soon, these levels are only going to get lower along with groundwater levels which are actually still normal in a number of areas at the moment.

Yes, a decent amount of rainfall over the last 36 hours but we really need 7 days of this to make any marked difference heading into summer.

Thankfully the rest of the week is looking promising with some more fronts and showery rain on the forecast.

If it comes to fruition I’d be happy to see things starting to settle down from the 11th as the models are suggesting this morning. 

Only 15mm here so far. We need ten times as much as that but something less than 15mm more is much more likely.

Yes, it would have been nice in March & April when we really needed it. Another year where we've been robbed of a spring with blossoms withering on the trees and gardens taking on that midsummer look already. 

I'm just grateful to rid everywhere of the blowing dust. Another 2.5mm this morning. Maybe even the cracks in the lawn will start to shrink.

What is bad news for some of us though, is often good news for others and it just so happens that the relatively wet start to this summer which we are experiencing has brought about some much needed rainfall in many areas which has helped quite a lot as regards to the overall water scarcity situation.

With that in mind, SEPA have just released this week's water scarcity report which is the first such report of this summer, and which can be viewed here . The result of this week's rainfall is that unlike last week, not a single area has had its water scarcity status upgraded and indeed, quite a number of areas have now had their status downgraded from early warning status back to normal.

This means that the whole of the NW quarter of Scotland including the Northern Isles but with the exception of the Outer Hebrides has now completely returned to normal as far as water scarcity is concerned.

However, the main focus of this recovery continues to be in the west of Scotland with parts of SE Scotland still struggling to get any meaningful amounts of rainfall. As a result, the water scarcity situation in the rest of Scotland remains unchanged from last week and this means that all of those areas which were at alert level this week, are still at alert level this week with Edinburgh and the Borders remaining at early warning status.

River levels are generally normal across much of the country, but remain low to very low in many areas. If this week's recovery in the west continues and becomes more widespread across Scotland though, that will hopefully result in more areas having their status downgraded and possible even returning to normal as a result.

No drought here and I'm sure that is replicated in most parts of the country.

No actual drought here. The actual definition of a drought is determined by a certain consecutive number of dry days. A day which is completely dry obviously cannot be an official rain day but the number of rain days here is actually running above average for this year with Edinburgh Gogarbank having already had just over a half of its 1991-2020 annual average number of rain days during this year so far, with this month also running above average on that front.

Since a rain day is obviously not a dry day, the fact that the number of rain days during this month is running above average  is enough in itself to show that there is no drought here just now (longer periods of course, can contain drier spells and even drought periods within them, even if the number of rain days is above average during such a period).

In terms of the actual rainfall amounts though, we are still running at a deficit for this month even with this latest unsettled spell, and we are also running at a deficit for the year as well because although we will be halfway through the year at the end of this month, Edinburgh Gogarbank has only had just over a third of its 1991-2020 annual average rainfall during this year so far.

That is happening because although we're seeing plenty of days when it's raining at some point in that day at least, the amount of rain which we are actually getting with that is consistently amounting to only very small amounts. The deficit which has resulted from this isn't as big as last year's deficit, but I would imagine that this is bound to at least some impacts as long as that continues.