Research and analysis

Dry weather and drought in England: 24 to 30 October 2025

Updated 3 November 2025

Applies to England

1. Summary

Wetter weather conditions have continued this week. The forecast continues to be changeable into November. With 3 days to go until the end of October, England has received 74% of the long term average rainfall for October. Despite this, river flows have fallen this week at most sites and remain below normal or lower across one third of sites particularly in the east where soils are still dry.

As dry soils in catchments are replenished with autumn rainfall, we have seen most public water supply reservoirs increase their storage levels particularly those which benefit from direct inflows. Total reservoir stocks across England for week ending 28 October were 63.3%, an increase of 1.2% from the previous week.

The situation in Sussex, supplied by South East Water company, has improved slightly over the past week with Ardingly Reservoir having increased to 29% full but this is still very low. We continue to work closely with the company. It has applied for a non-essential use ban drought order to restrict use by some businesses. temporary use bans (TUBs) by Yorkshire Water and parts of Thames, Southern and South East Water may need to remain in place well into the winter until their water resources situation improves significantly.

Pressures have eased somewhat on agriculture with the October rainfall. Hands off flow restrictions reduced by 179 in the last week (222 remain in force). Concerns remain over the ability to fill winter reservoirs for irrigation next year if a dry autumn and winter develops, especially in eastern England.

Environment incidents are reducing with no new reports of dry weather-related environmental incidents across the country.

There have been no notable changes to navigation restrictions on rivers and canals in the last week.

The National Drought Group met on 30 October. The Environment Agency used the meeting to begin to discuss the prospects of the current drought lasting into and throughout 2026. A full report on this will be released in the middle of November but the meeting heard the top-line statistic that we need 100% rainfall over the rest of autumn and winter to be back to a normal position by the end of next March.

2. Area drought status

There have been 2 changes in area drought status this week due to an improving situation in those areas:

• Cumbria & Lancashire area has moved from drought to recovery status
• Greater Manchester Merseyside and Cheshire Area has moved from drought to recovery status

2.1 Areas in drought

• Yorkshire (YOR)
• East Midlands (EMD)
• West Midlands (WMD)
• parts of Sussex aligning with South East Water supply areas

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) – remaining parts of Area not in Drought status

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.

3. Current water situation

The week to 28 October saw a continuation of wetter conditions across many parts of the country particularly across the south-west, north-west and far south-east. It was drier across central and east England and parts of the north-east. England received a total of 24mm of rainfall. England has currently received 74% of the LTA rainfall for October. For the month so far, it has been wettest in north-east England where 88% of the LTA has been received, while across the north-west and south-west 68% of LTA rainfall has fallen.

Soil moisture deficits (SMD) have recovered to near LTA levels for the time of year across north and south-west England. In central and south-east England. SMD is still recovering towards near LTA levels. However, in the east deficits are more than 100mm and yet to start a meaningful recovery. This is much drier than would be expected for this time of year. SMDs in the east of England are currently tracking October 2022 deficits.

Despite the rainfall this week, river flows decreased at the majority of reported sites. The number of sites that were classed as below normal or lower reduced to one-third of all sites, although in east England, 2 sites are classed as exceptionally low for the time of year (the River Lud in Lincolnshire and the Ely Ouse at Denver). Thirty-one sites across England were classed as normal for the time of year.

Reservoir storage for the week to 28 October was 63.3%, having increased by 1.2%. Storage increased at the majority of reservoirs. Thirteen reservoirs are now less than 50% full, including Ardingly, Clatworthy and Wimbleball which are all less than 30% full.

As would be expected at this time of year, groundwater levels continue to recede at sites across England. Chalk aquifers from the Wessex and South Downs to Yorkshire are now below normal or lower, including 2 sites classed as exceptionally low for the time of year. In the Chilterns, North Downs and parts of East Anglia, chalk aquifers are normal, below normal or notably low for the time of year. Limestone aquifers in east and south-east England are below normal or lower 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. Several water companies have seen their water resource situation stabilise from recent rainfall. Further significant rainfall is needed to return to normal conditions across many water companies. Concern for many water companies is now on the recovery of water resources over the autumn and winter if conditions are dry.

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

4.1 Anglian Water

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 and Essex South. Reservoir levels continue to steadily decline.

4.2 Bristol Water

Bristol Water remains at drought level 2. Reservoir storage has increased since last week. The company is bringing sources back online to conserve storage.

4.3 Cambridge Water

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

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

Northumbrian Water remains at drought level 1.

4.6 Severn Trent Water

Severn Trent Water is in drought level 1 in its Strategic Grid North zone. The company is continuing leakage reduction activities and enhancing customer communications. Severn Trent Water applied for its Ambergate drought permit (Derbyshire River Derwent) on 22 October.

4.7 Southern Water

Southern Water remains at drought level 2 in its Isle of Wight supply area and Southampton West remains in drought level 1. The company 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 recent rainfall, the drought order application was withdrawn on 3 October.

4.8 SES Water

SES Water remains in drought level 1. Bough Beech Reservoir has increased slightly from 43.8% to 44.3% this week.

4.9 South East Water

South East Water remains in drought level 3 in its resource zones 2 and 3, due to low storage in Ardingly reservoir.

As of 29 October, the reservoir is at 29% total capacity which is an increase since the previous week. The company was granted its Ardingly winter drought permit on 22 September and applied for its River Ouse drought order to Defra on 10 October. South East Water implemented a TUB for customers in Kent and Sussex areas from the 18 July 2025 and removed exemptions from this ban on 17 October.

The company applied for a non-essential use drought order to restrict some uses of water by businesses on 24 October. Examples of banned activities include watering outdoor plants on commercial premises, cleaning windows and filling swimming pools and ponds. The company states that it will only implement this if the drought worsens.

The company is also reviewing and implementing additional options to bring water into the zone. For more details check the drought orders for South East Water.

4.10 South Staffordshire Water

South Staffordshire Water remains at drought level 2. Blithfield reservoir storage has increased to 45.9% since last week.

4.11 Thames Water

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

4.12 United Utilities

United Utilities remains in Enhanced Monitoring and Operations in its Strategic Grid supply area and is in business as usual in its Carlisle resource zone. The company’s Pennine reservoirs storage has increased since last week.

4.13 Wessex Water

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

4.14 Yorkshire Water

Yorkshire Water remains in drought level 3. Reservoir storage has increased this week. Supply reservoirs total storage is 57.1%.

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. We have now granted 44 drought permits to Yorkshire Water. The 2 Wharfe drought permits and the Ouse drought order were issued on 22 August. We granted the south group drought permits (7 permits) on 5 September. The north-west group (12 permits) were granted 10 September. In the south-west group, 17 permits have been granted, with the final 10 granted on 3 October. We granted 4 permits in the North Group on 10 October. The last 2 North Group drought permit applications were granted on 16 October.

For more details check the Yorkshire Water website

5. Agriculture

Rainfall in October has helped ease pressure on the agriculture sector but drier conditions continue across the east parts of the country.

There are currently 220 hands off flow restrictions in force on abstraction licences (down 179 from 399 last week), where river flows remain low. The number of hands-off flow restrictions will change at the start of November when summer licences expire and winter refill licences come into play.

There are concerns about water availability for next year especially if we have a dry autumn and winter. This will affect the ability for farmers to replenish irrigation reservoirs, especially if groundwater and river flows remain low. We will be issuing a winter irrigation prospects report, similar to the spring irrigation prospects report, to help farmers understand their refill potential.

Concerns remain heading into the winter on feed availability for livestock due to poor grass growth this summer and low-quality and low-quantity hay and straw, due to this year’s dry conditions.

We continue to engage and support the agriculture sector into the autumn and winter season. We have received 30 flexible abstraction requests to date. These help abstractors manage with exceptionally dry weather.

We continue to proactively update our drought weather communications, detailing the current drought situation, support available to help farmers improve access to water and preparation for this winter. Our Environment Agency dry weather farming blog and Water Hub webpage contain further information.

6. Energy

There are no known issues with the energy sector.

7. Environment

The number of confirmed environmental incidents caused by drought and dry weather is levelling off with only a small increase this week; this continues the recent trend in response to the cooler, wetter weather for October. Total numbers for 2025 are now at 290 incidents.

Numbers of confirmed (category 1 to 3) abstraction or low flow incidents continue to broadly track the trends of 2018 and of 2020 and remain well below 2022 figures. Numbers of estimated and confirmed (category 1 to 3) abstraction or low flow incidents continue to stabilise, with only 2 new reports this week.

The confirmed numbers of fish mortality incidents caused by drought and dry weather remain below corresponding counts from previous years. The increase in the number of estimated and confirmed (category 1 to 3) incidents remains gradual, with 5 reported incidents over the last week, compared to the August peak of approximately 50 incidents per week. The need for fish rescues by Environment Agency Fisheries teams has reduced but monitoring of sites continues.

Regulation of the River Severn ceased in September and further regulation releases are not anticipated for the rest of this year. There were 86 days of River Severn regulation in total this summer.

The Environment Agency has obtained 2 drought orders to protect the environment, both at Holme Styes reservoir, Holmfirth, Yorkshire (granted 28 July and 3 September).

8. Navigation

The gradually improving water resources situation for the Canal & River Trust network has seen further canals reopened recently, with key lock flights on the Oxford and Grand Union Canals now available for cruising, although with restricted opening hours to continue to conserve water resources where possible.

Many of the Trust’s reservoirs have failed to show appreciable refill in recent weeks, and so unfortunately some canal closures are still in place across parts of the Trust’s 2,000-mile network, although this is a much-improved picture overall compared with the summer situation. The Trust continues to monitor the situation and will reopen further canals as water levels improve. The latest closures and restrictions are listed on the Canal & River Trust website.

9. Weather forecast

Conditions are expected to be unsettled over the weekend, with sunny spells interrupted by showers. As bands of rain move across England rain may be heavy in places. Highest totals expected in western areas. Changeable and unsettled conditions are expected to continue as low pressure dominates.

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
• planning for potential continuation of dry weather into winter and spring using the latest drought prospects information from water companies and other sectors
• 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

11. Contact us

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