A series of drier than normal months across parts of the UK has prompted fears of a drought. Rivers are said to have run dry after some parts of the UK had less than 10% of their usual monthly rainfall in April. 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 southeast 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 north western England, southern and eastern Scotland and Northern Ireland experiencing just a fraction of their usual rainfall.
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 forty one monitoring stations.