Environment concerns over lack of rainfall

Scotland will take a long time to recover from the lack of rainfall this year, environment watchdogs have warned.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) says soil conditions in Orkney and north east Scotland are now “exceptionally dry”.

Other areas have been pushed up the warning scale to “alert”.

Wick in Caithness has been classified as being in “significant” shortage of water for the seventh week in arow.

Sepa’s latest water scarcity report, published on Friday, says: “Another dry week has led to further decline in water resources across the country.

“Many coastal areas are also very dry. Some rainfall is expected in most regions this

week but it is unlikely to be sufficient to lead to any long-term recovery.

“A significant rainfall deficit has built up this summer which will take a long time to offset.”

Low reservoir levels have also been reported by Scottish Water. These should be sitting at around 80% at this time of year, but this week they dropped 3% to just 61% capacity.

Scottish Water has repeated its call for customers to limit their use of the natural resource.

It is advising to take shorter showers, use a watering can in the garden rather than a hose and only use dishwashers and washing machines when full.

The Met Office long-range forecast suggests that autumn is more likely to be dry than wet. This means that there could be more than double the chance of higher-thanaverage temperatures.

Last Wednesday, Scotland enjoyed its highest September temperature in more than a century as many areas were bathed in sunshine.

Parts of the country reached scorching highs of 28.6C, just two months before the Cop26 climate change conference in Glasgow.

It was the warmest September day since Gordon Castle in Moray reached 32.2C back in 1906.