If you’ve been melting quietly at your desk this week, relief is on the way. A cold front is pushing in from the northwest, and temperatures across parts of the UK are finally set to drop after what’s been another bruising stretch of heat for England.
Some areas recorded temperatures above 34°C on Wednesday, nudging into record-breaking territory for the time of year. Weather forecasters at the Met Office say the cooler air will arrive first in Scotland and Northern Ireland, before edging southward through the latter half of the week.
For anyone hoping to swap the fan for a jumper, Thursday and Friday are looking markedly more comfortable, with highs of around 19°C to 22°C expected across much of the north and Midlands. The south east will take a little longer to cool down, as it tends to.
But here’s the catch. Cooler doesn’t mean wetter. The cold front is largely dry, and that’s a serious problem for regions already deep into drought conditions. Parts of East Anglia, Yorkshire, and the south east have seen well below average rainfall since spring, and farmers and water companies are watching the sky with increasing frustration.
“We need sustained rainfall over several weeks, not just the odd shower,” one Norfolk arable farmer told regional broadcaster ITV Anglia this week. “The ground is cracked. It’s not going to recover overnight.”
The Environment Agency has already issued drought status in several regions, and hosepipe bans remain a real possibility if August stays dry. Water companies have urged customers to be mindful of usage, particularly in the east.
Ironically, the cooler temperatures may actually slow the evaporation rate and give reservoirs a marginal breather, but hydrologists are clear: what’s needed is rain, and lots of it, over an extended period.
The longer range forecasts, always a bit of an art form in August, hint at some unsettled weather creeping in from the Atlantic during the third week of the month. Whether that amounts to meaningful rainfall, or just enough to dampen a barbecue, remains to be seen.
For now, at least, the unbearable heat is easing. Whether the drought follows suit is the question that really matters.
