This year's spring in Great Britain can be the driest in history. The Met Office agency reported that from the beginning of the season in the country has fallen on average 80 liters of water per square meter, almost three times less than the average average. Experts warn that such a dry spring can mean serious problems with water resources in the summer.
According to the Met Office meteorological agency, there have been extremely scanty rain in the UK from the beginning of spring. The average sum of rainfall in the country has so far been 80 liters per square meter – this is very little compared to the many years for this period, which is 229 l/sq m.
Meteorologists said that March was the driest since 1961, and in April only half of the normal rainfall was recorded. As they suspect, this tendency can stay until the end of spring.
Risk of drought
The BBC station reported that in some parts of the metropolitan area of ​​London and Manchester, Hampshire, Lancashire and Yorkshire, a drop of rain has not dropped for 20 days. Heavier rainfall appeared mainly in Wales and southwestern England. It is expected that dry and warm weather will stay in Great Britain for at least another 10 days.
The Environmental Protection Agency called water supply companies to increase efforts to protect water resources. Officials said that the water level in retention reservoirs is currently satisfactory. If no more rain falls in spring, such a filling may be insufficient to meet the needs of all recipients. Then you will need to introduce a state of drought.
The last time drought was announced in Great Britain in the summer of 2022. The order to reduce water consumption was issued for 19 million recipients. As the BBC noted, this year the situation may be more difficult – three years ago the levels of filling the tanks were about 10 percent higher, and spring rainfall amounted to 78 percent of the multi -year average, not 35 percent as at present.
Source of the main photo: Reuters