'Drought conditions' in UK amid Europe heatwave

AFP: Parts of southern Britain are suffering from drought conditions following the warmest April on record amid a heatwave sweeping across northern Europe, researchers have said. England and Wales received the lowest March and April rainfall since 1938 with some regions getting the lowest rain in records dating back more than 100 years, according to the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH).

Water flows in some rivers, including the Exe in southwest England and the Ribble in northern England, were similar to those experienced in a drought in 1976, considered the most severe ever across much of Britain, said the CEH. The dry conditions had "resulted in agricultural and hydrological drought conditions affecting large parts of southern Britain", said the CEH….

Parched grass in 2006 at Duthie Park, shot by Richard Slessor, Wikimedia Commons via Geograph UK, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license