Still no real rainfall in your area?

[summer blizzard]

Grass is now definitely showing signs of drought, turning yellow, and trees and flowers are also starting to show signs of drought stress.

April and May both had around 50% of average rainfall, June is looking to have no more than 70%, probably the driest since 2006.

[Osbourne One-Nil]

Problem solved it. We've been deluged with 0.2mm of rain this morning, and the queues outside the Appleby Ark Building Centre have to be seen to be believed.

[Gray-Wolf]

We had a splash this a.m., wish I'd not spent 3/4 of an hr watering the blinkin' garden last night now........maybe me watering the garden is the Hebden' version of a rain dance.....

[Osbourne One-Nil]

I watered my garden too - I think we've proven your theory.

[Snow free zone]

Well it looks like the position "up here" has reached the nationals. There was news on the impending hosepipe ban on BBC national radio, Sky news and the BBC national news this am.

UU have applied to draw water from Ennerdale in order to try and keep up the flow in the local rivers. The Bela here although a spate river is as low as i've seen it for many years, the same can also be said of the Lune. There has been a wetting of the ground overnight in Preston, nothing more than that, and it looks as though there has been no rain at all here near Kendal. Am up towards Thirlmere tomorrow, will stop and have a look on the way back home.

[Osbourne One-Nil]

And I'm right next to the Eden and it's the first time I can ever remember it actually getting narrower through Appleby.

[Marcus_surfer]

Just because we have seen one or two weeks with dry and warm weather, they try to scare us now with this hosepipe ban business. I find it laughable that they are starting to worry about the reservoir levels in some parts of the UK and trying to tell us to be careful on what we do with water. It's called summer and they should be ready for this kind of weather, anyway august will probably be very wet so whats all the fuss about?

[Coast]

Drought risk hits north-west England, just months after floods

Regional water company to apply for drought permit after lowest winter and spring rainfall since 1929

Areas of the north-west hit only six months ago by floods which swept away bridges and turned streets into rivers, are now threatened with hosepipe bans and drought orders after the driest start to the year in almost a century.

Many reservoirs in Cumbria are now only two thirds full with levels falling fast after winter and spring rainfall was the lowest since 1929. The regional water company, United Utilities, would like to see days if not weeks of heavy rain to top them up again. The region traditionally has the highest rainfall in the country but has fewer natural underground water supplies, leaving it more dependent on man-made surface storage. Rainfall in May was only 38% of the regional average, and June so far has followed the same pattern.

The company will apply today to the Environment Agency for a drought permit, which would allow it to move more water to areas where shortages are becoming serious. United Utilities' John Sanders said: "If the drier than average weather continues this summer we will need to consider drought permit applications to temporarily allow increased abstraction of water from lakes and rivers. Similarly, we can't rule out the prospect of a hosepipe ban - it's 14 years since we last had one in the north-west."

Trevor Bishop, head of water resources at the Environment Agency, said there was little threat to supplies elsewhere in England and Wales. He added: "We are working closely with United Utilities to make sure they are doing everything they can to secure water supplies, manage customer demand and tackle leakage."

United Utilities said it would expect reservoirs to be around 80% full at this time of year, but Haweswater and Thirlmere levels are at 61.4%, while north and west Cumbria reservoirs are down to 68.2%. The company is also keeping an anxious eye on reservoir levels in the Pennines and north Wales. The Environment Agency warned that in the longer term water resources across the country were under pressure from climate change and population growth.

In the November flooding thousands of homes and businesses were damaged, four bridges collapsed, and a policeman died after more than a foot of rain fell in 24 hours.

www.guardian.co.uk

[Tucco]

New updated figures for NW.

http://www.unitedutilities.com/Keepingthewaterflowing.htm

In the incredible drought of 1995 Haweswater fell to about 15% with Thirlmire at 20%.

So a long way to go before 1995 levels are reached

Edited June 24, 2010 by Tucco

[Snow free zone]

NW and Cumbria down 7% since last week, nice to see people taking notice of UU's advice to save water , either that or everyone is giving their garden a good watering while they still can

Does anyone know how low Haweswater needs to be before the Mardale ruins become visible ? I went up there the last time they were visible (cant remember the year ?) I'd like to take the kids up if there's any chance its going to happen again.

[SP1986]

Luckily as my water comes from N. Wales, I wont be affected, so I can keep using the hosepipe at my leisure!

[Neilsouth]

Don't have to dig very far to hit saturated ground in this part of kent , still rather boggy in areas around the lake too

[Nick L]

Article in the Express & Star saying that Severn Trent have said that my area could face a hosepipe ban. My question is this - how on earth can they enforce a hosepipe ban?

[The PIT]

Pretty dry in the North West and sounds like a hose pipe ban will be on the way sometime unless there's a sudden change.

[Terminal Moraine]

Article in the Express & Star saying that Severn Trent have said that my area could face a hosepipe ban. My question is this - how on earth can they enforce a hosepipe ban?

In my experience hosepipe bans are about 90% successfully self enforced. As for the 10% or so of people who ignore the ban, it's amazing how many people who are abiding by the ban are eager to report those who aren't.

[RichardR]

The next door neighbours garden has gone brown, but ours is still fairly verdent, as our dogs like to wee and poo with high frequency on it, keeping it alive.

[Guest]

So much for the rain forecast for yesterday and today. We had a wee fall of rain last night at about 10pm and then some more today when a couple of times we had heavy drizzle for half an hour. My local Met-O station recorded 0.00mm of rain, I'm not sure how much fell here today but you're lucky if it even wet the ground.

[damianslaw]

It will be a very odd state affairs if we in what is normally the wettest part of england see a hosepipe ban whilst the normally driest part of the country i.e. south east doesn't.. It doesn't seem right..

We didn't see any rain last night - now 11 dry days and counting..

[SP1986]

It will be a very odd state affairs if we in what is normally the wettest part of england see a hosepipe ban whilst the normally driest part of the country i.e. south east doesn't.. It doesn't seem right..

We didn't see any rain last night - now 11 dry days and counting..

The grass is now turning rather brown around here, not unheard of, it happens to an extent every summer but not as much as now.

The NW is a diverse climate, people are always saying the NW is the wettest region in England, it probably is in terms of specific locations but it also have places that are normal almost as dry as the southeast, (South Cheshire/Wirral etc)

[Guest]

It will be a very odd state affairs if we in what is normally the wettest part of england see a hosepipe ban whilst the normally driest part of the country i.e. south east doesn't.. It doesn't seem right..

We didn't see any rain last night - now 11 dry days and counting..

I thought by now it would be pouring down for you and me...so I take back what I posted previously.

[Cymro]

Luckily as my water comes from N. Wales, I wont be affected, so I can keep using the hosepipe at my leisure!

Don't count your chickens!, North Wales and the WHole of Wales is also very dry at the moment, In south Wales here in Carmarthenshire 4 rivers that are normally fast flowing this time of year have dried up with only little pools, and otters wondering why their hol is seemingly no near Water, Nant Pedol and Nant Garnant are completely dry, Afon Berach and afon Grening are also almost completely dried up all tributries of the Aman which is lower than I have ever seen it before especially for the time of year. And no promise of any substantial rain in the coming fortnight is going to make the problem worse.

[azores92]

Article in the Express & Star saying that Severn Trent have said that my area could face a hosepipe ban. My question is this - how on earth can they enforce a hosepipe ban?

yh i heard this on the radio this morning, hopefully it rains a fair bit while im in europe for 2 weeks in july

[Nick L]

yh i heard this on the radio this morning, hopefully it rains a fair bit while im in europe for 2 weeks in july

Yeah I'm in Florida for 2 weeks in July, let's hope it absolutely belts it down non-stop in our absence

[BornFromTheVoid]

Even in Ireland we could be facing water shortages soon!

link

[osmposm]

Just because we have seen one or two weeks with dry and warm weather, they try to scare us now with this hosepipe ban business. I find it laughable that they are starting to worry about the reservoir levels in some parts of the UK and trying to tell us to be careful on what we do with water. It's called summer and they should be ready for this kind of weather, anyway august will probably be very wet so whats all the fuss about?

Marcus, you sound like you should be writing for the Daily Mail . Why would anyone want to scare us unnecessarily? If you actually, um, read the posts before (and since) yours, and follow some of the links, you'll see that the situation in many areas is unusual, even exceptional, and has been for many months, not just a couple of weeks. This is not just a question of normal summer weather.

We could of course make massive changes to the water infrastructure to cope with the very abnormal - but would you be happy to pay for that through your water rates and/or general taxation? As for August - maybe it'll turn out wet, maybe it won't. Probably wise to take care until we know.