Research and analysis

Dry weather and drought in England: 12 to 18 September 2025

Updated 10 October 2025

Applies to England

1. Summary

This week has seen widespread rainfall across most parts of England. For the first time since January England has received above average rainfall for the month and the wettest week for almost a year. However, the drought is not over, and it will require a wet autumn and winter to return us to a normal position. This was the message from the National Drought Group, that was held on Monday 15 September. We need to maintain focus on managing demand, maintaining supplies and protecting the environment.

The rain has helped as public water supply reservoir storage rose by 0.4% this week to 56.5%. However, not all reservoirs benefitted as levels have continued to fall at more than half of reservoirs. Stocks in both the Pennines and Yorkshire group are lowest, at just above 30%, however Yorkshire Water reservoirs increased by 0.2% this week – the first time they have risen since January. The 4 water companies who have implemented temporary use bans (TUBs), will need to keep these on, until their resource position has returned to normal – this may stretch well into the winter. The latest water company to activate its drought plan is SES Water who moved into drought level 1 this week. The company covers an area of south London.

Recent rainfall has increased soil movement as soils become wet again and expand, leading to more mains bursts and leaks. Water companies must continue to keep leakage under control and repair leaks as soon as possible.

The recent rainfall has eased pressures on the agriculture sector but this has not been enough to alleviate concerns regarding water availability this winter and next year. Abstraction restrictions dropped to 433 with improved river flows. Environmental incidents have decreased, but low flows and algal blooms persist. Around 400 miles of the Canal & River Trust network are still closed or restricted, mainly in northern and central England, and some feeder reservoirs to the canal network remain critically low, despite the rain.

2. Area drought status

There have been no changes in area drought status this week:

2.1 Areas in drought

• Cumbria & Lancashire (CLA)
• Greater Manchester Merseyside & Cheshire (GMMC)
• Yorkshire (YOR)
• East Midlands (EMD)
• West Midlands (WMD)

2.2 Areas in prolonged dry weather

• North East (NEA)
• Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire (LNA)
• East Anglia (EAN)
• Thames (THM)
• Wessex (WSX)
• Solent and South Downs (SSD)

2.3 How the stages of drought response work

Each area is reviewing its status depending on the triggers they have outlined in their drought plan.

More detail of how we manage drought, including our 4 stages of drought response, is available in Drought: how it is managed in England.

Natural Resources Wales report that their South East, Upper Severn and North Wales catchments are in drought status, with their South West catchment still at prolonged dry weather status. Further details are available at Natural Resources Wales – Dry weather updates 2025.

3. Current water situation

The 7 days ending 16 September has been the wettest reporting week for almost a year, with England seeing 43mm of rainfall. It was wettest in the north-west and north-east and drier in the east. In the first 16 days of September rainfall varied from 89% of the monthly long term average (LTA) rainfall for September in the east to 126% of monthly LTA in the south-east.

Soil moisture deficits (SMD) have reduced significantly across most parts of England, except in the east which received less rainfall. SMD are now close to or less than the LTA for this time in September across the north-west, south-west and south-east. Soils in the east are still very dry and despite reducing slightly, remain close to their long term maxima.

The wet weather has seen river flows rise across three-quarters of 55 indicator sites. Twenty-three sites (42%) are above normal or higher for the time of the year. Twenty-six sites (47%) are normal, and 6 sites (11%) are below normal or lower with all but one of these being in the east or north-east.

Reservoir storage levels for England rose 0.4% during the past week to 56.5% for the period ending 16 September. Stocks continued to fall in just over half of reservoirs, have risen in a third with the remainder static. Stocks in the Pennines group and Yorkshire group are the lowest in the country, standing at 30.2% and 30.3%, respectively. Levels are below 40% and still falling at Ardingly, Clatworthy, and the Derwent Valley.

As expected at this time of year, groundwater levels continue to recede across England. Levels in the Wessex Downs, Cotswolds and parts of the South Downs are exceptionally low for the time of year. Levels in chalk aquifers in Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk and parts of the North Downs are below normal or notably low. Levels in the Chilterns, North Downs and across parts of East Anglia are in their normal range for the time of year.

More details are available in our water situation reports for England.

4. Public water supply

Most water companies continue to follow their drought plans. However, some water companies are not implementing all the actions they have identified in their plans. Several water companies have seen slight water resource improvements or levelling off due to the recent rainfall, however further significant rainfall is needed to return to normal conditions.

Water companies report their drought response using operational drought levels, from drought level 1 escalating to level 4.

4.1 Anglian Water

Remains at drought level 1 in the following supply areas:

• Fenland
• Lincolnshire Central
• Norfolk Norwich and the Broads
• Ruthamford Central, North, South, and West
• Essex South

Recent rainfall has eased pressure on surface water in the past week.

4.2 Bristol Water

Remains at drought level 2. Reservoir storage has increased slightly this week, demand continues to reduce following the recent wet weather. The company is continuing work to optimise sources and increase water treatment works output to protect reservoir storage.

4.3 Cambridge Water

Remains at drought level 1. There is no significant change to its water resource position from last week.

4.4 Essex and Suffolk Water

Remains at drought level 1 in its Essex and Northern Central supply areas. No significant change to water resource position from last week.

4.5 Northumbrian Water

Remains at drought level 1. The Company are using Kielder and other sources to provide support to some of its smaller reservoirs. We are working with the company to understand and review potential actions that may be required.

4.6 SES Water

Has moved into drought level 1. The company has stood up its operational drought teams to begin drought plan activities.

4.7 Severn Trent Water

Remains at drought level 1b in its North Staffs and Strategic Grid North supply areas and at drought level 1a in its Central area. Some reservoirs are continuing to decline.

4.8 Southern Water

Remains at drought level 2 in its Southampton West and Isle of Wight supply areas and implemented a TUB on 21 July for customers in these areas. Southern Water applied to Defra on 18 July for a drought order to alter its River Test abstraction licence conditions and included an application for a non-essential use drought order. Following an objection to the drought order, a hearing took place on 28 August. Southern Water has announced this week it has requested Defra pause the application due to recent rainfall increasing some river flows in the area, including the River Test.

4.9 South East Water

Remains at drought level 2. The company implemented a TUB in its Kent and Sussex supply areas on 18 July. Recent rainfall has helped improve river flows and stabilised reservoir storage, which had been declining steeply over the summer. Storage at Arlington and Ardingly reservoirs remains similar to last week. Demand remains similar to last week. South East Water applied for the Ardingly winter drought permit on 28 August. The company is reviewing further actions that may be required. More detail is available here: Water latest South East Water.

4.10 South Staffordshire Water

Remains at drought level 2. Blithfield reservoir continues to decline but remains slower than previous weeks. There is no significant change to its water resource position from last week.

4.11 Thames Water

Remains at drought level 2 in its Swindon and Oxfordshire supply area (SWOX) and drought level 1 in its London zone. Thames Water implemented a TUB for its SWOX customers on 22 July.

4.12 United Utilities

Has moved out of drought level 1 and into enhanced monitoring and operations (EMO) in its Strategic Grid supply area. Recent rainfall has improved storage in the Carlisle resource zone, which remains in EMO level. The company’s Pennine reservoirs have increased slightly after the recent rainfall, but continue to remain of concern due to low levels. The company is taking additional operational actions to conserve Pennine reservoir stocks.

4.13 Veolia Water

Has moved out of drought level 1 and moved back to business as usual. The water resource position has improved from last week.

4.14 Wessex Water

Remains at drought level 1b. There is no significant change to its water resource position from last week.

4.15 Yorkshire Water

Remains in drought level 3. Yorkshire Water has seen the first weekly increase in total reservoir storage since January. The expectation is that once drought permits are implemented, this should assist the recovery in levels or slow any further decline. The company implemented a TUB on 11 July. Twenty-one drought permits have been granted. The 2 Wharfe drought permits, and the Ouse drought order were granted on 22 August. The north west group (12 drought permits) have been granted (10 on 5 September and 2 on the 10 September). The south group (7 drought permits) have been granted (5 September). Yorkshire Water applied for its south west group (17 drought permits) on 4 September. More detail is available on Yorkshire Water’s website. 

5. Agriculture

The recent rainfall has eased pressures on the agriculture sector but this has not been enough to alleviate concerns regarding water availability this winter and next year.

With the 2025 harvest season almost complete, this year has seen a mixed harvest with generally lower and poorer quality of crop yields due to the long dry spell. Wheat has seen the greatest variation across the country with some farmers performing well but generally yields are 6.1% below the 10 year average.

Livestock farmers are struggling with forage shortages and rising costs due to poor grass growth and low-quality hay and straw. Many have already used winter feed early and are now buying extra or selling animals to cope. The Addington Fund has launched emergency grants to support those most in need. Temporary rule changes are also being requested to allow early cutting or grazing of forage under agri-environment schemes.

Growers are now making decisions about next year’s crops and with the irrigation season complete, attention is now turning to refilling of winter storage reservoirs. There are concerns about water availability should we have a dry autumn and winter which will affect farmers ability to replenish farm irrigation reservoirs, especially if groundwater and river flows remain low.

Despite the rain, 433 hands off flow restrictions remain in force on abstraction licences where river flows remain low. It is unlikely that Section 57 spray irrigation bans will be required in parts of East Anglia and West Midlands due to the recent rainfall and as the majority of irrigation has finished. We have previously written to licence holders in these areas requesting voluntary reductions on surface water abstraction. There are currently 521 voluntary abstraction restriction requests across the country.

We continue to engage and support the agriculture sector and in total we have received 29 flexible abstraction requests, including 16 requests in our Yorkshire Area. These help abstractors manage with the exceptionally dry weather. Some areas are starting to receive requests to refill winter reservoirs early which are being reviewed on a case by case basis.

We continue to proactively update our dry weather communications for the agriculture sector, through the Environment Agency dry weather farming blog and Water Hub webpage, to highlight support available to farmers to help improve access to water.  

6. Energy

There are no known issues with the energy sector.

7. Environment

Environmental incidents due to drought or dry weather rose slightly across England, with 245 recorded in the year to date. Relatively high concentrations have been recorded in the North West, across the West Midlands and close to the south coast.

Numbers of confirmed (category 1 to 3) abstraction or low flow incidents remains similar to corresponding counts from 2018 and 2020, but remain below 2022 figures. Numbers of estimated and confirmed (category 1 to 3) abstraction or low flow incidents have stabilised, with only 2 reports this week.

Confirmed numbers of dead fish incidents caused by drought and dry weather remained stable this week with the wetter weather. Environment Agency Fisheries teams continue with fish rescues in recent weeks and are monitoring sites regularly.

Severn Regulation: There have been 86 days of Severn Regulation so far this year, with no regulation forecast for the next 7 days. The first non-regulation day after a 62-day continuous period was 9 September. The Shropshire Groundwater Scheme has been stood down for this year.

The Environment Agency has applied for 5 drought orders to protect the environment:

• one for Elslack reservoir (submitted on 26 June)
• one for Winterburn reservoir (submitted on 7 August)
• 2 for Holme Styes reservoir (granted 28 July and 3 September)
• one for Belmont reservoir (submitted on 15 August)

8. Navigation

Widespread closures and restrictions remain in place across the Canal & River Trust network. Due to ongoing dry weather, around 20% of the Canal & River Trust network is closed – worse than the 2022 drought. Roughly 400 miles are affected, mainly in northern and central England. Despite recent rain, reservoir levels remain critically low, with some, like Peak Forest and Macclesfield, at just 11.1% capacity. The Trust is monitoring the situation and will reopen canals as water levels improve.

The latest closures and restrictions are listed on the Canal & River Trust website. The Canal & River Trust are still planning for contingency and emergency situations for several canals. The Trust have brought forward some winter engineering works whilst parts of the network are closed.

The Environment Agency, as the navigational authority for the River Thames, has been managing low flows through the Oxford watercourses. With the recent rainfall and rise in river levels, there has been a reduction of navigation issues. Low flows on the River Little Ouse have led to a narrow boat grounding and requiring rescuing at Brandon. An advisory notice is in force regarding low flows.

9. Weather forecast

Friday will be rainy and cloudy in most of England with the highest totals expected in north-west England and brighter, warmer conditions up to 25 degrees in the south-east. The weekend will stay unsettled, with heavy and thundery showers on Saturday. It will turn colder from Sunday, with rain becoming more showery and spreading south on Monday.

10. Drought readiness actions

In response to the drought and dry weather, the Environment Agency continues to act by: 

• operating our Gold command structure for our national incident response
• coordinating closely with water companies to implement statutory drought plans, taking necessary action to safeguard public water supplies
• activating drought plans for those Environment Agency Areas in drought and PDW status
• enhancing abstraction licence compliance checks and issuing hands off flow or level restrictions and warnings to some abstractors in areas experiencing low flows
• monitoring, preparing and responding to incidents caused by low river flows, particularly in those Environment Agency Areas in drought status
• preparing dry weather advice to fishery operators to help protect their waters
• hosting regular national drought meetings

The next National Drought Group meeting is scheduled for 30 October.

11. Contact us

Contact drought.national@environment-agency.gov.uk if you have questions about this report.