Low rainfall and high temperatures have dried up grass, prompted wildfires and led to hosepipe bans for millions of people.
London is looking increasingly parched these days amid the fourth scorching heatwave of the year and now the declaration of a ‘flash drought‘. Low rainfall and high temperatures have dried up grass, prompted wildfires and led to hosepipe bans for millions of people.
Thankfully, conditions look set to be making somewhat of a turn, with BBC Weather experts predicting light showers overnight on Monday, August 3, through to Tuesday afternoon. These will then become heavier from around midday on Wednesday.
Thermometers are taking a steep drop too, with highs of 25C – 28C until then. This is a far cry from the final days of July, when temperatures reached 34C in some areas of the capital.
BBC Weather is forecasting further intermittent rainfall across Friday, August 7 and Saturday, August 8, followed by a period of grey skies. However, the Met Office believes the dry weather will likely continue.
Its meteorologists are predicting cloudy weather with patches of sunshine for the rest of this week, with highs of around 25C – 27C. The start of August will then bring about ‘more changeable’ conditions.
The long-range forecast reads: “This means there is a greater chance of some rain or showers for areas of the UK which have seen prolonged dry weather, although rainfall amounts are likely to be fairly modest. Just a low chance of a deeper area of low pressure, which would bring more widespread and heavier rain along with some strong winds.
“Beyond that it will likely become mostly dry once again as we head toward mid-August. Temperatures closer to average, still the potential for some warmer interludes, especially in the south, although perhaps not the heat we have seen in recent weeks.”
Dry and settled conditions will likely dominate the latter part of the month, with high-pressure systems tending to affect the UK. This may be interrupted at times by Atlantic frontal systems, especially in the north, or thunderstorms in the south.
For now, however, seven areas of central, eastern and southern England – around half of the country – are in a drought. This includes the whole of London, East Anglia, Hertfordshire, Thames Valley, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, Devon and Cornwall, the West Midlands, and Wessex – covering Dorset, Somerset, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire.
With a few days left to go, this month could end up as the driest July on record, with England having just 7 per cent of expected rainfall, and southern England seeing just one per cent. Dry weather in the spring and summer and a series of heatwaves has put pressure on water resources.
Almost a third of England – including parts of the South East, Midlands and North West – is in “prolonged dry weather” status, with only the North East and Yorkshire still seeing “normal” conditions for the time of year. There have been three droughts in the past five years: in 2022, 2025 and 2026.
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