Drought declared in north west England following sunniest spring on record
A drought has been declared in north west England after the sunniest spring on record led to a drop in water supply.
Some 630 hours of sunshine were clocked up across the whole country between 1 March and 27 May, according to provisional figures from the Met Office, beating the previous record of 626 hours set in 2020.
The Environment Agency has now said that weeks of unusually dry weather have resulted in the region going into drought status on 21 May. It follows the region being placed in 'dry weather status' on 30 April.
Rainfall between February and April in the north west was the third lowest on record since 1871 and while rain fell over the weekend, it has not been enough to see the region avoid drought status.
A spokesperson for the Environment Agency said: 'Across the north west we officially entered drought status on 21 May due to low water levels in reservoirs and rivers.
'Despite the rain over the weekend levels remain low and we are encouraging people to be aware of the impacts of drought as we enter the summer period.'
The spokesperson added: 'With further unsettled periods and rainfall over the coming weeks we will continue to closely monitor the situation and implement our North West Drought Plan.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Bloomberg
28 minutes ago
- Bloomberg
Stamp Duty Deadline Dents The UK Housing Market
Can we expect a rapid rebound, or stagnation later this year? By Save Welcome to the award-winning Money Distilled newsletter. I'm John Stepek. Every week day I look at the biggest stories in markets and economics, and explain what it all means for your money. The UK housing market is behaving roughly as you'd expect, given that the cost of buying a home has recently shot up.
Bloomberg
an hour ago
- Bloomberg
Burning Roads, Invading Octopus Signal a Hot Summer Ahead
Today's newsletter looks at the summer ahead for the Northern Hemisphere and all of the troubling, surprising and weird impacts climate change is creating. Read on or get the full story on baking highways, new employee heat laws and a British octopus invasion on For unlimited access to climate and energy news, please subscribe. By Joe Wertz
Bloomberg
an hour ago
- Bloomberg
Smoke From Massive Canadian Wildfires Is Blowing Over the UK
Smoke from massive wildfires burning in Canada has crossed the Atlantic Ocean and is blowing over the UK. Only a little smoke survived the journey, said Georgie Myers with the UK's Met Office. That smoke is contained in a thin, high-altitude layer and is not expected to have any air quality effects, but it could be noticeable Monday evening and early Tuesday morning.
