All of Wales now in “drought recovery” after weeks of heavy rainfall

All of Wales is now in ‘drought recovery’ status after weeks of heavy rainfall helped to improve water levels.

As well as record temperatures this year also saw the driest seven month period on record, with Wales seeing just 63.8% of its expected rainfall.

Over the summer Natural Resources Wales moved several regions into drought status.

North Wales was the last area to be declared in a drought at the start of September.

At the time NRW said there is a “pressing need to prepare and adapt to the environmental and wider impacts of climate change”.

Two weeks ago North Wales was removed from drought status into drought recovery – joining south east and south west Wales.

It came after sustained rainfall through September, October and November (so far). During Sep – Oct, Wales received 104.3% of the Long-Term Average.

This week NRW confirmed that the Upper Severn catchment – the last remaining area in drought – would also be moved into drought recovery.

As of the 21st November, Waled has received 95.8% of the Long-Term Average (LTA) rainfall. There has been heavy rainfall almost daily throughout November, with some areas of Wales seeing more than 10mm of rain.

In a statement NRW said: “We have confirmed today that the Upper Severn catchment, the last remaining area of Wales in ‘drought’ status, has now moved into ‘recovery from drought’ status.

“This change in status reflects the impacts that continued rainfall has had on the catchment with river flows consistently at levels we’d expect for the time of year (including baseflow) and the risk of regulating the river over the winter (releasing water from the reservoir for the environment) has greatly diminished.

“The status ‘recovery from drought’ reflects that there may be localised residual concerns (such as low groundwater levels) however as these concerns reduce we will move areas back into ‘normal’ drought status – this does not mean that there won’t be long-term impacts to ecosystems, just that this drought event has concluded.

“We will continue our routine hydrological and ecological monitoring in the lead up to spring as this is a critical period in terms of drought for next year.”