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England is entering its fifth heatwave of the summer this week with 71.3 percent of the country now officially classified as being in drought — a flash drought that has developed with unusual speed following the nation's driest July on record, according to the UK Environment Agency.
Four additional regions were officially declared drought zones by the National Drought Group on Monday: the East Midlands, Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire, Kent and East Sussex, and Solent and the South Downs. They join seven regions already under drought status since late July: East Anglia, Hertfordshire and London, Thames Valley, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, Devon and Cornwall, the West Midlands, and Wessex.
Yorkshire, the North East, Cumbria, Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Merseyside and Cheshire are now in prolonged dry weather status — the stage directly before drought — meaning no region of England currently falls under normal conditions, according to The Guardian.
More than 27 million people are now subject to water restrictions. Southern Water has applied for two drought orders from the government: one to maintain abstraction rates from the River Test during low flows, and a second for a non-essential use ban. South East Water said last week that its supplies were critically low and warned customers they risked losing supply entirely unless demand dropped.
Reservoir levels across England have fallen to 69 percent capacity — 11.6 percentage points below typical for this time of year, per the Environment Agency. River flows are approaching or surpassing previous record lows set in the severe drought of 1976, according to the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology. Some 22 percent of rivers are now classified as exceptionally low.
Farmers have reported their earliest harvests in 20 years, with reduced yields across the board. The UK has now recorded 34 days this year where temperatures exceeded 30 degrees Celsius somewhere in England, including 13 consecutive days in July alone.
Temperatures during the incoming fifth heatwave could exceed 36 degrees Celsius in southern parts of England, according to the Met Office, which has issued amber heat health alerts across most of the country.
Prof. Liz Bentley, chief executive of the Royal Meteorological Society, told The Guardian that the episode is a stark reminder that extreme heat is making droughts develop faster and hit harder. She noted that England has now experienced three droughts in five years.
This summer cascade of heat events has placed severe strain on NHS services, agricultural output, and public water systems. England drought is forming part of the western edge of a broader heat pattern affecting most of Western and Central Europe, where a fifth heat episode is under way simultaneously.
