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Wales Logs Less Than 2% of Expected July Rain as First UK Drought of Summer Is Declared
Natural Resources Wales has put North Wales and the Upper Severn into official drought after a July so dry it is rewriting the record books.
Cosa sapevamo all'inizio
- NRW declared the first UK drought of summer 2026 on Thursday 23 July, covering North Gwynedd, Ynys Môn, South Gwynedd, the Welsh Dee, Clwyd and the Upper Severn.
- Parts of the region have received less than 2% of expected July rainfall, with Wales as a whole at about 5% of the July average.
- Drivers include successive heatwaves, dwindling rivers, wildfires on Halkyn Mountain in Flintshire and river levels approaching all-time lows.
- Around 30 July 2026 NRW extended the drought to the whole of Wales, citing sustained high temperatures and a deteriorating natural environment.
Allora ancora aperto
- No verbatim on-the-record NRW statement from the 23 July declaration has been published in the available reporting; only a partial quote from the later whole-of-Wales extension ("deteriorate") is on the record.
- No precise national reservoir storage figure for late July 2026 has been confirmed in the sources reviewed.
- The exact contribution of climate-change-driven drying versus natural variability to this specific July is not quantified in the reporting reviewed.
Cosa avevamo detto di seguire
- Whether NRW, the Environment Agency or the Scottish Environment Protection Agency issues further drought declarations in Eastern and Southern England if the dry pattern persists.
- Whether the whole-of-Wales designation brings hosepipe bans, abstraction limits or further environmental restrictions in the days ahead.
- Whether July 2026 is confirmed, when the final month's figures are in, as the driest July in nearly 190 years of UK records.