The Royal Borough of Greenwich's once-lush parks now show cracked earth where lawns used to be. This visible transformation mirrors a national crisis as the UK's climate becomes drier and hotter by design. Farmers, firefighters, and archaeologists are all adjusting to this new normal, with drought and heat reshaping landscapes and livelihoods.
Drought zones expand
England's Environment Agency declared half the country in drought, while Natural Resources Wales added the whole nation to the list. These are the third such designations in the last five years, with southern England being hit hardest, receiving just 1% of its long-term average rainfall for July. July 2026 was the driest month in southern England since records began nearly 200 years ago, the Met Office has said. England and Wales also provisionally recorded their driest July since records began in 1836. Wales had its joint warmest July on record for mean temperature, and England recorded its second warmest July. The drought is affecting 23 million people across England and Wales, with hosepipe bans in place and many struggling to find enough water for gardens and outdoor cleaning. In England, 40% of the population are under a hosepipe ban.
Water levels in rivers are dropping fast. The Thames at Reading is at its lowest recorded level, with exposed riverbed stretching between its usual banks. This pattern is repeating in reservoirs and lakes across the country. Although winter rainfall had filled most reservoirs to 80% capacity, the extreme summer is draining them faster than models predicted, raising concerns about future water availability. The Environment Agency said last month water reserves "should be enough for the coming months until the next period of sustained rainfall". While rain is forecast for some parts of England, the Met Office said south-east England would continue to experience little rain.
Heat and fire create feedback loops
The dry spell has led to 393 wildfires in July alone. It is the most active month on record for wildfires. Firefighters in North Wales reported a 47% increase in grass fires compared to June 2025. That was a previously record-setting month. Smoke from these blazes has been visible from space. The Rhinogydd mountain fires created a visible haze over north Wales. The Cairngorms National Park in the Scottish Highlands has experienced the worst fires in living memory. A series of huge wildfires, supercharged by the climate crisis, has torched large parts of Europe this summer. Greece is battling one of the worst seasons of wildfires of the past decade and in France, thousands of evacuees were allowed to return home or to holiday accommodation on Monday after the country’s largest wildfire on record. Rivers in Europe are facing extremely low flows. The Danube’s water flow has fallen to 1,500 cubic metres per second in Romania, less than a third of its July average.
Luke King of Riverford Organic Farmers describes how heat stress weakens crops. This happens even with irrigation. Four reservoirs at his farm near Buckfastleigh have gone dry in mid-season. "We've had to make decisions about which crops get water," he says. "Even when you water, the heat makes it evaporate too fast." This growing season has been the hottest and driest the business remembers in the last 40 years. Most reservoirs now are dry. This is a situation they do not normally expect so early in the year.
Ancient sites reappear as earth dries
Dry conditions have exposed forgotten history. Neolithic structures, medieval ditches, and First World War practice trenches have emerged in parched fields across the country. At Chatsworth House in Derbyshire, the outline of a 17th-century garden, first revealed in 2018 and 2022, has become clearer again. The dry weather also revealed new Roman ruins at Caerhun fort in Conwy, offering archaeologists valuable new insights into the UK's past.
Despite the dry conditions, Londoners still gather in parks. The Royal Borough of Greenwich hopes normal rainfall will revive its parks. The Met Office warns summers could become 60% drier by 2070. The visible browning of grasslands across England suggests 2070 is already arriving early. Dr Chloe Brimicombe, a climate scientist at the University of Oxford, said this summer has been a compounding of dry weather. It has led to droughts, heatwaves, and wildfires. All of these highlight the need for better long-term planning in the face of the climate crisis.
The climate crisis is intensifying the UK's weather. It creates a cycle of extreme heat and dry spells. These encourage vegetation growth followed by rapid drying. This produces ideal fuel for fires. Firefighters are working around the clock. Thousands of people have been evacuated due to fire threats. Meanwhile, farmers like those at Riverford are making difficult decisions. They decide which crops to prioritize. They also deal with water scarcity and heat stress on plants.
The Met Office's predictions of a 60% drier and significantly hotter UK by 2070 serve as a stark warning. Adaptation and mitigation are urgently needed to address the impacts of a warming planet. As the UK and Europe face back-to-back heatwaves and wildfires, the urgency of the climate crisis becomes impossible to ignore. For now, the hope remains that normal rainfall will bring relief to parched green spaces, even as the long-term future looks increasingly uncertain.