The UK Hydrological Summary for July looks back at an unprecedented month. It was the driest July in both England and Wales, and third driest of any month for England (in records from 1890). Low flows in many catchments, reservoir stocks decline, dry soils... Full summary tinyurl.com/53ejhrpd

Exceptional southern UK aridity July 2026 @ukceh.bsky.social - record low rainall in England & Wales, heatwaves & wildfires, exceptionally dry soils & low river flows + declining reservoir/groundwater reserves resulting in flash #drought set to persist into Autumn: nrfa.ceh.ac.uk/sites/defaul...

After record low July rainfall, what's next for UK river flows? Below normal to exceptionally low flows across England, Wales & NE Scotland will continue with record lows anticipated for August & drought impacts into the autumn. 🎥 Dr Katie Facer-Childs with the latest UK Hydrological Outlook.

The drought affecting many parts of the UK is 'remarkable' for how quickly it has progressed, Jamie Hannaford, head of water resources and drought at UKCEH says. Much of central, southern and eastern areas of England are now in drought, joining North Wales and the Upper Severn. 🧪 1/

Wednesday sees the peak of the heat this week, with temperatures likely reaching 35 Celsius in eastern England📈 This would mark the 7th day of 2026 when the UK has recorded 35°C or higher. Prior to this year, the record was 5 days of ≥35°C, set in 1976 and 2020🌡️

Two heatwaves. 50 years apart.

Europe's worst heatwave so far, in terms of heat stress measures and temperatures - brought to you by fossil fuels. New @wwattribution.bsky.social study showing how such deadly heat became possible in only a few decades. www.worldweatherattribution.org/fossil-fuel-...

It was inevitable, wasn't it🙄 Of course the Telegraph would run with something like this👇 So let's remove some of the rose-tinted spectacles and also look at some of that data comparing 1976 with modern heat waves Because the 1976 nostalgia porn is wearing a bit thin at this stage 🧵1/23

What could a future heatwave on the island of Ireland look like? A heatwave reaching 38°C is plausible. This particular heatwave is set in 2056 in a world approaching 2.5°C above pre-industrial levels. Analysis: @climatecocentre.bsky.social www.irishtimes.com/environment/...

Happy birthday to the heatwave of 1976 which began today 50 years ago, peaking at 35.9°C. If a comparable heatwave happened in the current climate it would be 3-4°C hotter, peaking at 38-39°C. And the actual forecast is for temperatures of 38-39°C in the next few days with a red heatwave warning.

The UK Hydrological Summary for May 2026 has been published: 🌡️ While showery and changeable in the first three weeks, May was ultimately defined by an exceptional period of heat in the last 10 days. UK rainfall ~78% of average. River flows normal to exceptionally low across most of the UK. 🧪 1/

We welcome the new report by the House of Lords Environment and Climate Change Committee, which draws attention to the importance of understanding and managing drought. UKCEH's Jamie Hannaford (pictured left) and Kathryn Brown contributed to the inquiry. Report (PDF): tinyurl.com/5fpj74wc

Imagine the same synoptic weather patterns occurred in a warmer world. How would our experience of the weather be different? Warmer? Yes Wetter? Only on the wettest 10% of days Everyday weather in a warmer world by Thomas et al.: egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/20...

Communicating changes in the intensity of UK heatwaves Global warming of ‘just’ 1°C does not necessarily sound like a problem. But in the UK, the hottest summer days are warming much faster than typical summer days, changing our experience of heatwaves rmets.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Communicating changes in the intensity of UK heatwaves

Communicating how a global warming of ‘just’ 1°C affects people is challenging. The hottest UK summer days have warmed more than 3 times faster than the rate of global warming in the past century, ca...

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UKCEH and @rothamsted.bsky.social modelling shows how climate change could reshape GB’s rivers/farms by 2050. Findings: river nutrients ↑20–30%, ↑ west coast fluxes (3–10%), ↓ east (3–13%), 5-20% drop in most arable yields, 20% boost in maize yields Read more: agzeroplus.org.uk/news-and-med... 🧪

Fantastic new @ukceh.bsky.social dataset now out: 30-minute actual evapotranspiration from 45 sites for up to 10 years, with measurements co-located with rainfall and multiple soil moisture measurements from our @cosmosuk.bsky.social network over the same period: catalogue.ceh.ac.uk/documents/c0...

What happened with river flows, groundwater levels and reservoirs in January? The latest UK Hydrological Summary was published today! nrfa.ceh.ac.uk/sites/defaul... (PDF) 2/

From drought to downpour, 2025 brought the UK whiplash weather 🌦️ New on our Counting the Earth podcast, we delve into the UK's weather extremes. After a dry spring & four heatwaves we had significant rainfall later in the year. By December, total rainfall reached ~90% of the UK average. 1/

Latest UK Hydrological Outlook 🌧️ River flows in eastern Scotland likely normal to above normal over next 3 months; flows elsewhere in the normal range except southern England. Here, river flows & groundwater levels likely above normal to notably high. See more: hydoutuk.net/latest-outlook 🧪

We need to talk about drought. Yes, that's right, drought! Our weather is experiencing extremes – from flooding to drought – so on the next episode of Counting the Earth, we'll be delving deeper into this whiplash weather. 🎧 Subscribe now and never miss an episode: www.ceh.ac.uk/news-and-med...

Putting the hot & dry summer of 1976 into context 50 years after the extreme summer for the UK and Ireland, what can we still learn? climatelabbook.substack.com/p/the-summer...

Plausible worst-case climate futures and extreme events for the UK Paper by Arnell et al.: agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/... Article: www.theguardian.com/environment/...

‘Massive disruption’: UK’s worst-case climate crisis scenarios revealed by scientists

Scientists say government must prepare for unlikely but ‘plausible’ 4C rise in temperature and a 2-metre rise in sea levels

theguardian.com

Mobilising multilateral action is essential for water security. A new policy brief from the UK Committee for International Hydrology (UKCIH) calls for coherent global action as billions face worsening water challenges. Read it here ➡️ www.ceh.ac.uk/sites/defaul... [PDF] 💧🧪 1/

Exciting jobs & PhD studentship! 1) postdoc in historical windstorms: jobs.reading.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai... 2) postdoc in extreme event storylines: jobs.reading.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai... 3) PhD in redeveloping the Central England Temperature series (led by Tim Osborn): www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

🌍 CANARI scientists @ukceh.bsky.social briefed the @houseoflords.parliament.uk Environment & Climate Change Committee on drought preparedness 🏜️ @jamiehannahydro.bsky.social shared expert evidence on advances in drought monitoring and changing risks of future droughts 🔗 canari.ac.uk/2025/12/04/c...

📣 Call for abstracts #EGU26: How do climate variability patterns (eg ENSO, NAO, AMO) influence water resources & extremes like floods & droughts? 🌍💧 Submit by 15 Jan! 🔗 https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU26/session/55947 #Hydrology #ClimateVariability #WaterResources

💧 📢Calling all river flow modellers heading to #EGU26 The UK Hydro-MIP team are inviting submissions for their session on Learning from model differences: model intercomparison, benchmarking and multi-model approaches in hydrology (HS2.2.8) meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU26/sessio... 🧪 1/

Two exciting postdoc positions available! Historical windstorms - working with two insurance companies to explore UK wind risks: jobs.reading.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai... Extreme event storylines - working as part of a EU collaboration on event attribution: jobs.reading.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai...

Looking for a #PhD in #ClimateExtremes? We are advertising a project attributing causes of recent #droughts using counter-factual storylines. Based in #Edinburgh, working with Andrew Schurer, me, @gabihegerl.bsky.social, & @edhawkins.org tinyurl.com/5n7b52fr

The Rainfall Observers Over the past three centuries, thousands of people across the British & Irish Isles have recorded rainfall, often every day for decades. Here we recognise some of the individuals who made particularly important contributions. rmets.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

The rainfall observers

Over the past three centuries, thousands of people across the British and Irish Isles have regularly recorded rainfall, often every day for decades. Their efforts allow us to reconstruct long-term tr...

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