England ‘needs seven months of rain to end drought’ after record-breaking summer

It will take seven months of above-average rainfall to get affected parts of England out of drought conditions, according to new research.

Almost three-quarters of the country remain in drought following the UK’s hottest summer ever, in which some areas went weeks without a drop of rain.

While there has been some wet weather in the first half of September, the Environment Agency (EA) pointed out drought only comes to an end when rivers, groundwaters and reservoirs return to normal levels.

That will take 120% of typical rainfall over the next seven months, the body said.

Even in the agency’s most likely rainfall scenario, Devon & Cornwall and East Anglia will still be in drought when spring begins next year – at which point the traditionally dry months will have come back around.

Philip Duffy, the EA’s chief executive, said we ‘cannot underestimate the challenge ahead over the coming months’.

He added: ‘A few weeks of rain cannot reverse the deficit we face from the very dry spring and summer.

‘We still need everyone to use a little less water to speed up the drought recovery.’

According to Met Office predictions, there will be a return to drier conditions in the second half of this month.

They will be concentrated ‘particularly in the south where rain is needed the most’, the EA warned, though El Niño may mean a stormy autumn more broadly.

Significant wet weather has already hit eastern Spain, with torrential rain causing floods in areas popular with tourists.

One UK national died overnight as his car was swept away in floodwater east of Barcelona.

Retired nurse Susan, 73, filmed cars driving through water-logged streets this morning.

She said: ‘We’re hoping we’re over the worst of it now but there are still dark clouds and it’s been scary. It’s tragic that someone has died.

‘Some of the roads here are water-logged, and driving is difficult.’

Schools and outdoor activities across the region were suspended, while the Agencia Estatal de Meteorologia forecast 60mm of rain in a single hour in the region of Orihuela.

The drought warning from the EA comes as Andy Burnham reiterated his commitment to meeting the net zero target for greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

In the weeks after becoming Prime Minister in July, Burnham was criticised for speaking little about the climate as the UK faced heatwave after heatwave.

Writing for the Guardian today, he said: ‘The climate crisis is not a distant threat. It is here and with us now.

‘The British people are no longer insulated from the consequences, and they do not want to be excluded from the solutions.’

Burnham wrote that the crisis ‘presents us with an enormous challenge and possibility’, saying: ‘I have long seen the green transition as the best chance we will ever have to reindustrialise Britain.’

His pledge to reach net zero came on the same day a new report from Parliament’s Energy Security and Net Zero committee called for the term to be phased out.

While still backing the transition, the report says the phrase ‘net zero’ acts as a ‘distraction’ and has ‘lost much of its significant positive association’, blaming an ‘increasing vocal opposition’.

Criticism of the government’s net zero ambition has been led by Reform UK and particularly deputy leader Richard Tice, who rejects the scientific consensus that human activity is driving climate change.

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