Recent rainfall may not have pleased holiday makers, but it has been good for gardeners, and has left the Environment Agency reporting that the River Frome is in normal status.

The latest figures from the EA show levels in the river at their usual levels, which is good news for Somerset, since over the border in Devon, there is still officially a drought and the agency is not predicting a return to normal until this coming winter.

The weir in Frome August 7

DEFRA has posted an explanation on how a drought is officially measured.

What is drought? 

The main types of drought, which may occur separately or together are:

• Agricultural drought – when there isn't enough rainfall and moisture in soils to support crop production or farming practices such as spray irrigation.
• Environmental drought – when lack of rainfall has a detrimental impact on the environment and ecology.
• Water supply drought – when a lack of rainfall leads to concerns from water companies about supplies for their customers.

The Environment Agency (EA) monitors various indicators (such as rainfall, river flows, groundwater levels, reservoir storage, ecology, public water supplies) and will decide the level of drought an area is in.

There are four stages:

• Prolonged dry weather – this period is characterised as the early stages of drought where we find there has been a period of dry weather and this is impacting on river flows, groundwater levels and water levels in lakes and reservoirs.
• Drought
• Severe drought
• Recovering from drought.

What is the current situation? 

In late May and June, low rainfall and hot weather (with associated high demand) caused rivers levels to fall and caused ecological stress in a number of areas. However, recent rainfall has helped to restore river flows in many parts of the country and reduced temperatures in the water environment, which has helped fish and other wildlife.

The natural environment continues to take time to recuperate from the impacts of last summer. Parts of East Anglia also remain in drought (since August 2022) due to residual impacts on groundwater from last year's drought. Devon and Cornwall also remain in drought (since August 2022) due to low water levels in two strategic public water supply reservoirs. The Environment Agency anticipates that these areas will not return to normal status until at least winter (subject to rainfall amounts).

The dry weather in May and early June meant that two Environment Agency areas – Cumbria and Lancashire, and the West Midlands – entered prolonged dry weather status. Rainfall over the last three weeks, has meant Cumbria and Lancashire has now returned to normal status. England has now seen rainfall over the long-term average for July.

All other areas are currently in 'recovering from drought' or 'normal' status.