{"id":178372,"date":"2025-06-12T12:27:14","date_gmt":"2025-06-12T12:27:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/178372\/"},"modified":"2025-06-12T12:27:14","modified_gmt":"2025-06-12T12:27:14","slug":"drought-declared-in-yorkshire-after-extremely-dry-spring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/178372\/","title":{"rendered":"Drought declared in Yorkshire after extremely dry spring"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Yorkshire<\/a> has officially entered a state of drought due to critically low river flows and groundwater levels, exacerbated by one of the driest springs ever recorded, the Environment Agency<\/a> (EA) has announced.<\/p>\n

Made on Thursday, the announcement escalates the region’s status from \u2018prolonged dry weather<\/a>\u2019 to \u2018drought.\u2019<\/p>\n

This follows a similar declaration for the north west of England in late May, encompassing areas such as Greater Manchester, Merseyside, Cheshire, Cumbria, and Lancashire.<\/p>\n

The UK experienced its hottest spring on record<\/a>, coupled with the driest conditions in decades, placing immense strain on crops and natural habitats. Millions of households have been warned to prepare for potential water restrictions this summer.<\/p>\n

Claire Barrow, Yorkshire environment, planning and engagement manager at the Environment Agency, said: “Our climate is changing, and we had 22 days of almost no recorded rainfall in May.”<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile we have had some rain at the start of June, it has not been enough to reverse the impacts of the prolonged dry weather.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are working with Yorkshire Water to make sure they enact their drought plans.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also encourage people to be aware of the environmental impacts of droughts as we enter the summer period and note the small steps we can all take to save water.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Baitings<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

Baitings Reservoir in Ripponden, West Yorkshire (Danny Lawson\/PA) (PA Archive)<\/p>\n

Water Minister Emma Hardy said: \u201cI am receiving regular updates from the Environment Agency.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m doing everything in my power to hold Yorkshire Water to account to ensure we have the regular supply of water that is needed across the region.\u201d<\/p>\n

Met Office statistics show that West Yorkshire, North Yorkshire, East Yorkshire and South Yorkshire saw just 40%, 43%, 40% and 41% of the average rainfall for March, April and May.<\/p>\n

Yorkshire Water warned that water restrictions are possible this summer unless the county sees \u201csignificant rainfall\u201d in the coming months.<\/p>\n

Dave Kaye, director of water at the utility, said: \u201cWe\u2019ve seen water demand decrease in recent weeks thanks to the welcome rainfall and the efforts of our customers to save water.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had one of the driest springs on record, which has impacted our reservoir levels, meaning they are much lower than normal for this time of year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout significant rainfall in the coming months, temporary usage restrictions are a possibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Kaye said that the declaration of drought does not immediately change the situation for customers but added that the firm will continue to work closely with the Environment Agency to manage resources carefully and move water around the region to areas that need it most.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have 100 additional colleagues tackling leakage in the field and we\u2019d like to thank customers for continuing to report leaks to us so we can repair them as soon as possible,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Scientists have warned that drought conditions will become more intense in the UK with climate change, putting strain on water resources.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

The Environmental Agency has met to consider whether water companies need to introduce measures such as a hosepipe ban in some regions (Yui Mok\/PA) (PA Wire)<\/p>\n

Dr Jess Neumann, associate professor of hydrology at the University of Reading, said: \u201cThe drought announcement in Yorkshire comes only a few weeks after parts of north-west England declared a drought.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn unseasonably dry spring, the driest in nearly 90 years means many reservoir levels are only 60-65% full, well below the 80-85% average for this time of year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe lack of rainfall is placing significant strain on public water supply, affecting agricultural crop production, and harming wildlife and the environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr Neumann added that drought status in two large areas of England \u201craises important questions about the security of our water in the long term\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is no longer abundant and plentiful. We urgently need to adjust to a future of climate change and water stress.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the north west of England and Yorkshire are now in drought, three other areas \u2013 the North East, Yorkshire, East and West Midlands \u2013 are also experiencing prolonged dry weather.<\/p>\n

Last week, officials said reservoir levels across England fell to new lows as the Environment Agency held its latest national drought group meeting of key players.<\/p>\n

The group, which met last Thursday morning, heard that without further substantial rain some water companies may need to implement drought measures this summer to conserve supplies, such as hose pipe bans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":178373,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3843],"tags":[728,70,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-178372","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-science","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114670393377422655","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178372\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/178373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}