This week's water scarcity report has just been issued by SEPA and can be viewed
here .
Some rain has fallen here over the past week, but fortunes are still rather mixed in this report.
Last week, there was a warning that unless there was significant rainfall over this past week in the River Teviot (the main river which runs through Hawick in the Scottish Borders) and River Ettrick (also in the Borders) catchment areas, those areas would have their status upgraded all the way up to significant water scarcity status with water extraction restrictions also being introduced in those areas. There has been some rain there in the last few days with some of that falling towards the end of my time down there, but that wasn't enough to prevent that upgrade from moderate to significant water scarcity status with water extraction restrictions being introduced as a result.
However, the city of Dundee and the East Neuk of Fife have had their water scarcity status downgraded from significant water scarcity status to moderate water scarcity status with all water extraction restrictions in those areas being lifted as a result. That then leaves us with just one area in Aberdeen which is still at significant water scarcity status with water extraction restrictions remaining in place.
Meanwhile, Speyside and one area of SW Scotland has had their status downgraded to alert status from moderate water scarcity status with four areas having their status downgraded from alert status to early warning status, and with five other areas returning to normal.
Edinburgh and the rest of the Borders which hasn't been mentioned above are still at moderate water scarcity but there is a warning in place that two areas of Aberdeenshire will have their status upgraded to significant water scarcity status with water extraction restrictions being introduced there if there is no significant rainfall there within the next week.
The north of Edinburgh, usually always missing out on snow events which occur not just within the rest of Scotland or the UK, but also within the rest of Edinburgh.