UK should be ready for more frequent droughts, study says

DROUGHTS like the one suffered in the UK in the summer of 2022 will become more frequent and we need to be better prepared, according to a new study.

That summer, along with 2018, was the joint hottest and fifth driest since the 1890s, affecting large parts of the country and was the worst in some areas since 1976.

A Level 4 heat health alert was issued for the first time since its introduction in 2004 and there was an estimated 2,800 excess deaths of over 65s due to heat between June and August.

It was part of wider European drought, believed to be the worst on the Continent in 500 years.

A new report from the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH) suggests the need for improved real-time monitoring and forecasting systems to inform early mitigation measures.

The study, published in the Royal Meteorological Society journal Weather, outlines how the drought evolved and its impacts on water resources, wildlife and people.

The scientists are highly confident, based on modelling, that we will be increasingly tested by more droughts like 2022 with drier summers and higher temperatures.

The UK suffered exceptional heat, dry soil and low river flows which had impacts across much of the country including water restrictions. Six companies introducing hosepipe bans affecting around 20 million people and there were restrictions on waterways navigation.

Agriculture suffered with low crop and milk yields, as well as dying grass in grazing fields that forced farmers to use winter food stores.

There were nearly 25,000 wildfires spreading easily across dry fields and also affected urban areas. Environmental impacts included algal blooms and fish kills.

UKCEH hydrologist Jamie Hannaford, one of the authors of the study, said: “The 2022 drought was a very severe and widespread drought that impacted large parts of the country. In some localities, it was the worst hydrological drought since the ‘benchmark’ 1976 drought, but more generally it ranks among the most severe droughts witnessed in the last half century. It was, however, largely relatively short-lived in most of the country, generally lasting from late spring to mid-autumn.”

Hydrologists classify 2022 as a summer drought, which developed relatively quickly, as opposed to a multi-year drought driven by successive dry winters.