Research and analysis

Dry weather and drought in England: 31 October to 6 November 2025

Updated 7 November 2025

Applies to England

1. Summary

In October, England received 90% of the long term average (LTA) rainfall for the month. Wet, unsettled weather conditions continued this week, with particularly large rainfall totals in north-west England. It is forecast to remain changeable for the next week, with rainfall moving in from the west which may not reach east England. With a wet start to November for many areas, river flows have increased at most sites, with only a quarter classed as below normal or lower for the time of year, most of which are in east England where conditions remain driest.

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 the period ending 4 November were 65.8%, an increase of 2.5% from the previous week. The average for this time of year is 77.4% for England.

The situation in Sussex, supplied by South East Water company, has improved slightly over the past week, with Ardingly Reservoir having increased to 32.58% full – but this is still very low. We continue to work closely with the company.  On 24th October, it 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 are expected to be in place well into the winter, until their water resources situation improves significantly. However, Southern Water has lifted its TUB in effect in its Hampshire and Isle of Wight Supply areas, from 31 October.

There are currently 379 hands off flow restrictions in force on abstraction licences (up 159 from 220 last week), November sees the change from summer irrigation licences to winter on-farm reservoir refill licences, some of which have hands off flow restrictions where flows are not yet high enough to support abstraction. Concerns remain over the ability to fill winter reservoirs for irrigation next year if a dry autumn and winter develops, especially in eastern England.

Overall, numbers of incidents caused by drought and dry weather showed only a minor increase of one incident this week, continuing the recent trend in response to cooler, wetter weather. Total numbers for 2025 are now at 291 drought and dry weather incidents.

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

2. Area drought status

There has been no change in area drought status this week. Greater Manchester Merseyside & Cheshire Area and Cumbria & Lancashire area moved to recovery status on 30 October.  

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 4 November was another wet week for many parts of England, particularly the north-west where over a third of the expected rainfall for the whole month of November has already been received (71mm). It was drier elsewhere, with the lowest weekly total in east England (14mm), and England as a whole received 31mm of rainfall. For October, England received 90% of the LTA rainfall, with all regions receiving more than 80% of the LTA for the time of year. South-east was the only region to receive around average rainfall (101% of LTA).

Soil moisture deficits (SMD) are around LTA levels for the time of year across north and south-west England. In central and south-east England, SMD remains below LTA despite some recovery following wetter weather. In east England, deficits remain around 100mm, meaning soils are still much drier than would be expected for the time of year.

Following another wet week, river flows increased at the majority of reported sites. Just under a quarter of sites were classed as below normal or lower, including the River Yare and the Ely Ouse in east England which were both classed as exceptionally low for the time of year. Half of sites were classed as normal for the time of year.

Reservoir storage for the week to 4 November was 65.8% (LTA is 77.4%), having increased by 2.5%. Storage increased at two-thirds of reservoirs, but decreases were also seen, mainly in east, south-east and south-west reservoirs. Thirteen reservoirs are now less than 50% full, including Blagdon and Wimbleball (both in south west), which are less than 30% full. Ardingly (in Sussex) rose by 3.2% and is 32.58% full.

Groundwater levels continue to recede at sites across England, as would be expected at this time of year. Many sites in chalk aquifers from Yorkshire to the Wessex and South Downs are below normal or lower for the time of year, including two which are exceptionally low. In the Chilterns, North Downs and parts of East Anglia, chalk aquifer sites are largely normal for the time of year. Sites in limestone aquifers in east and south-east England are below normal.

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 improve following 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, this was granted on 3 November.

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 removed the TUB in effect in its Hampshire and Isle of Wight areas on 31 October. 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. There has been a decline in storage since last week.

4.9 South East Water

South East Water has moved from drought level 3 into drought level 2 in its resource zones 2 and 3, with storage in Ardingly reservoir increasing over the last week. As of 5 November, the reservoir is at 32.58% total capacity. 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. More detail is available on South East Water website.

4.10 South Staffordshire Water

South Staffordshire Water remains at drought level 2. Blithfield reservoir storage has increased by 2.6% to 48.5% 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. Haweswater storage has increased by 2.1% since the previous week to 58.8%. The company’s Pennine reservoirs storage has increased since last week with storage at 69% compared to 64.4% the week before.

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 has increased by 3.52% since last week, to 60.6%. The expectation is that once drought permits are implemented, this should assist the recovery in reservoir 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 379 hands off flow restrictions in force on abstraction licences (up 159 from 220 last week), where river flows remain low. The winter refill season has now started and with some river flows still below normal for the time of year, this will impact on the ability for some abstractors to refill irrigation reservoirs, where hands of flows conditions are in force. 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.

With the 2025 cereals harvest now completed, attention turns to establishing next year’s crops. Recent rainfall has improved conditions for establishment of crops, but soil moisture deficits are still very high in East England and will hamper germination and establishment. Concerns remain heading into the winter on feed availability for livestock due to poor grass growth this summer and low-quality/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

Overall, numbers of incidents caused by drought and dry weather showed only a minor increase of one incident this week, continuing the recent trend in response to cooler, wetter weather. Total numbers for 2025 are now at 291 drought and dry weather incidents.

Numbers of confirmed (category 1 to 3) incidents with dead fish remain below corresponding counts from previous years. The increase in the number of estimated and confirmed (category 1 to 3) incidents remains gradual, with 2 reported incidents over the last week, compared to the August peak of approximately 50 incidents per week. The proportion of confirmed (category 1 to 3) incidents with dead fish that have a drought or dry weather tag on the national incident recording system (NIRS) remains low (20%).

Numbers of confirmed (category 1 to 3) abstraction or low flow incidents continues to broadly track the trends of 2018 and of 2020 but remain well below 2022 figures. Numbers of estimated and confirmed (category 1 to 3) abstraction or low flow incidents have continued the recent, more steady trend, with only 3 new reports this week.

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 remain unsettled and changeable over the weekend (8 to 9 November), with bands of rain moving in from the east. These will bring rain to many places, although the highest totals are expected in western areas, with eastern England remaining drier. This low pressure is expected to remain into next week, before higher pressure arrives towards the middle of November which will bring more settled, generally drier conditions for many.  

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

The next National Drought Group meeting is scheduled for 8 December.

11. Contact us

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