Met Office says this warning will likely cause ‘adverse’ health effects with travel and power generation also possibly affected There’s only one solution in the end to the drought now declared across most of England and that’s rain, says Hannah Cloke, professor of hydrology at the University of Reading. “While water companies and regulators have a range of measures available to manage demand, like restrictions and hosepipe bans, these are aimed at slowing the rate at which water resources are depleted,” she said. An important consequence of drought is that very dry soils can become less able to absorb rainfall when it does arrive. This can increase surface runoff and can even contribute to localised flash flooding, particularly if rain falls intensely over a short period. The current situation highlights the need to improve long-term resilience to both drought and flood risk as climate variability increases, and shows one more damaging impact of the burning of fossil fuels. Continue reading...