https://www.sepa.org.uk/media/594305/220721-water-scarcity-report_final.pdf I know that I was the first person on this forum to highlight these reports, but thanks for keeping us up to date with the latest such report whilst I am on my break here in the Scottish Borders.
As others have said, there is a difference between a lack of rainfall and an actual drought.
It is true that there has been ongoing lack of rainfall where I normally live in Edinburgh. However, there has been the odd day when we have actually had some recorded rainfall.
The big issue though is that we keep on just getting the odd day here and there with some recorded rainfall, only for it to then be bone dry for days on end (or at the very least, have little or no recorded rainfall during those periods).
Luckily, those dry periods are never long enough to amount to any official drought, so Edinburgh has never actually had any official drought during this summer.
However, those drier periods mean that the rainfall totals on those days when it does rain are never enough to prevent the overall deficit from continuing to grow and that is why there is an ongoing lack of rainfall (albeit without any actual drought).
Those dry periods build up and cause the grass to turn yellow, but any rain which we get then helps to make everything green again, so it is probably those interruptions in what would otherwise have been a completely dry period and severe drought situation, which have helped the grass to end up being not as brown at any time as it was in 2018 when we did see more in the way of drought conditions, albeit over a shorter time frame.
Here in the Scottish Borders, the situation isn't quite as bad as it is in Edinburgh and whilst Edinburgh (along with Aberdeen) is in a moderate scarcity situation, we are only at alert as regards to water scarcity down here.
In another post on this forum, Noodle Doodle gave his opinion on why there is such a scarcity but even with that, I would very much like to see our rainfall totals return to normal with the deficit being made up as that is the only thing which will quell my own nervous disposition and concerns over this particular issue.
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.