Drought reaches parts of Yorkshire – and river levels still falling

The Guardian (UK): More areas of the country are now in drought following another dry month which has hit rivers and groundwater supplies, the Environment Agency has said. Swaths of east and south Yorkshire from Chesterfield up to Scarborough are officially suffering from drought, with areas around Sheffield, Doncaster, Hull and Driffield affected.

The areas join the south-esst and eastern England in drought, most of which has been affected since earlier this year, although parts of East Anglia have been suffering drought conditions since last summer.

This month, seven water companies across east and southern England announced hosepipe bans would come into force before Easter in a bid to conserve water supplies in the face of two unusually dry winters. But while the rivers Don, Rother, Hull and Derwent are at low or very low levels for the time of year, the Environment Agency said public water supplies were unlikely to be affected in the region...

The bridge where the River Derwent passes under the A38 can just be seen in the centre of the picture. Shot by Nikki Mahadevan, Wikimedia Commons via Geograph UK, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license