Fears of UK drought after months of low rainfall
Written by News on 09/05/2017
A series of drier than normal months across parts of the UK has prompted fears of a drought.
There have been reports some rivers have run dry in Cumbria and reservoir levels in Cornwall are lower than during the last official water shortage.
In January, large parts of the UK had less than 75% of their usual rainfall and in March parts of southeastern England and north and east Scotland also had much lower falls than normal.
This was followed by an April that saw many parts of southern and northwestern England, southern and eastern Scotland and Northern Ireland experiencing just a fraction of their usual rainfall.
The Met Office said: "The lowest rainfall totals of anywhere in the UK last month were in Edinburgh (Gogarbank at only 3.2mm and Botanic Gardens with 4mm – 7% and 10% of average respectively), closely followed by London (Hampton at 3.8mm and St James park at 4.2mm, both 9% of average)."
The Environment Agency said it has led to a situation in England’s rivers when "daily mean flows remain below normal or notably low for the time of year" at all but six of the 41 monitoring stations.
A "notably low" river level is one that occurs just 8% of the time.
Sky News weather forecaster Isobel Lang said it follows one of the driest periods in 20 years.
She said: "Winter rain is really important, for replenishing the reservoirs and ground waters and we’ve had some really dry months since January.
"October to March was the driest October to March for 20 years and then of course April, about 19% of the average rainfall in the south and about 30% in northern England. It’s very low.
:: UK weather: The latest Sky News forecast
"The trend towards the weekend (this week) is showery, but I don’t think the sort of rain that’s going to help. It’s sporadic perhaps and after that there’s still high pressure."
She said after last week’s largely dry and warm week, the same will follow this week.
Sky News weather producer Christopher England said: "Whether this will lead to a drought is still open to question – it all depends on the rainfall amounts over the next few weeks."
(c) Sky News 2017: Fears of UK drought after months of low rainfall
