The latest drought and dry weather briefing has been released by the EA. There has been no change in drought status since the last update, with East Anglia still within an area of “prolonged dry weather”. For agriculture, the briefing notes the following:
“Despite the rainfall in the November, drought conditions remain in parts of the country. The recent rainfall will help abstractors to replenish supplies for next year’s irrigation season, as most river flows are normal or higher for the time of year. However, in parts of East Anglia some river flows are below normal for the time of year, and this may impact the ability for some abstractors to refill irrigation reservoirs, where hands of flows conditions are in force. There are currently 244 hands off flow restrictions in force on abstraction licences (down 109 from 353 last week), where river flows remain below average. Some concerns have been raised from Water Abstractor Groups regarding the current restrictions on abstraction licences used to refill winter farm reservoirs. Where licence conditions allow, abstractors are advised to refill irrigation reservoirs as soon as possible to ensure greater resilience for next year irrigation season.”
The briefing also refers to a new EA report on prospects for winter refill of irrigation reservoirs and a drought forecast for 2026. In summary, this forecasts drought conditions for 2026 unless there is average rainfall or more this winter. Under a 100% long term average rainfall scenario for winter 2025/26, irrigation prospects in east and north Norfolk are good and in west Norfolk they are moderate. For 60% to 80% long term average rainfall prospects are poor to moderate respectively.
Links to the update and the prospects reports are here:
Dry weather and drought in England: summary reports – GOV.UK
