{"id":90188,"date":"2026-07-25T13:10:22","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T13:10:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/90188\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T13:10:22","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T13:10:22","slug":"drought-wildfires-and-hosepipe-bans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/90188\/","title":{"rendered":"Drought, wildfires and hosepipe bans"},"content":{"rendered":"

Temperatures are set to soar above 30\u00b0C for parts of the country next week, as forecasters predict a fourth heatwave<\/a> of the year may be on its way.<\/p>\n

After a much-needed cooler period this weekend, temperatures will start to rise again throughout next week, with some locations, including Usk, Monmouthshire and Exeter, and Devon reaching heatwave<\/a> thresholds for the 20th consecutive day.<\/p>\n

This comes as a wildfire in Cairngorms National Park, Scotland has forced over 600 people to be evacuated, and hosepipe bans continue across much of the South of England and Wales.<\/p>\n

When is a heatwave declared?<\/p>\n

Heatwaves in the UK are declared when temperatures reach or exceed a certain threshold for three consecutive days.<\/p>\n

The threshold varies depending on where in the UK the temperatures are increasing. In the north and west of the UK, the threshold is 25\u00b0C, whereas in parts of the South and East of England, it\u2019s 28\u00b0C.<\/p>\n

\"(FILES)Some forecasters say temperatures could reach as high as 35\u00b0C next week (Photo: Toby Shepheard\/AFP)<\/p>\n

The threshold for a heatwave has already been met three times this year \u2013 once in late May, once in June and again in July.<\/p>\n

Much of England and Wales experienced a cooler period lately, dipping below the heatwave threshold, but areas like Usk and Exeter have continued to reach heatwave criteria throughout the cooler period.<\/p>\n

Due to the prolonged dry weather, there are fears thousands of homes could experience water shortages<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Eight water companies in the South of England and Wales have already introduced hosepipe bans following an exceptionally dry month.<\/p>\n

Will we see another heatwave?<\/p>\n

The Met Office has said that while some areas will see rain and showers this weekend, the wettest conditions are likely to remain confined to northern and north-western parts of the UK.<\/p>\n

Going into next week, temperatures in England and Wales will rise to around 25-32\u00b0C, with temperatures peaking on Wednesday and sunny spells persisting until Friday.<\/p>\n

\"LONDON,The Met Office has said temperatures may stay warm until early August (Photo: Rasid Necati Aslim\/Getty)<\/p>\n

Central and eastern England will initially see the hottest temperatures before the weather starts spreading northwards and westwards.<\/p>\n

Scotland and Northern Ireland will remain cooler with temperatures generally in the high teens or low to mid-twenties.<\/p>\n

Some forecasters have predicted parts of East Wales and England could see temperatures as high as 35\u00b0C.<\/p>\n

Niamh Murray, operational meteorologist at the Met Office, said: \u201cSome models are showing mid-30s into next week, however, we\u2019re currently looking at temperatures between 30\u00b0C and potentially 32\u00b0C.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not going for 35\u00b0C, but, given the timeframe, there is scope for that to be supported by other models.\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking towards the end of the month, the Met Office has said southern areas are likely to remain relatively settled and very warm in late July and early August, with northern areas likely to experience periods of rain or showers. <\/p>\n

Asked if a potential heatwave could persist into August, Murray said, while the weather is likely to stay hot, temperatures may hover just below the threshold for a heatwave.<\/p>\n

\u201cTemperatures are still likely to be above average as we head into August, but there is a potential that they might remain at borderline heatwave threshold from Friday onwards,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Drought, wildfires, and hosepipe bans declared<\/p>\n

A major incident has been declared in Cairngorms National Park, Scotland, as firefighters continue to battle a wildfire<\/a> which has been raging since 15 July.<\/p>\n

\"HandoutFirefighters have been battling a blaze in Cairngorms National Park since mid July (Photo: Duncan Ferguson\/PA) <\/p>\n

Residents of Nethy Bridge, a village of around 650 people, are being evacuated as a precaution, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service said.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, the Welsh Government also activated \u201ccrisis management arrangements\u201d to tackle the wildfires that have broken out across Wales during the recent hot weather.<\/p>\n

North Wales and the Upper Severn have become the first parts of the UK to officially announce drought status, Natural Resources Wales said, although other areas are expected to soon follow unless significant rainfall returns. <\/p>\n

The area has received less than 2 per cent of the expected rainfall for the month so far, with low river flows across large parts of the region, and some locations recording or approaching record lows.<\/p>\n

Many parts of England are in prolonged dry weather status as well, as the country has received just 3 per cent of its average July rainfall.<\/p>\n

Reservoir storage in England currently stands at 75 per cent, around seven percentage points below the long-term average for the time of year, the Environment Agency said.<\/p>\n

Hosepipe bans have been declared across much of England and Wales in response to the exceptionally dry weather. <\/p>\n

Suppliers including Thames Water, South East Water, and Anglian Water have brought in restrictions to more than 23 million people in England and Wales, as they struggle to keep up with surging demand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Temperatures are set to soar above 30\u00b0C for parts of the country next week, as forecasters predict a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":90189,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[602,4832,3166,5631,5,6,5632,24848],"class_list":["post-90188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uk","tag-climate-change","tag-heatwave","tag-hot-weather","tag-summer","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-weather-forecasts","tag-wildfires"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116980785637025723","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90188\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}