Where and when it will finally rain across UK this week

With parks dried to a crisp, wildfires destroying homes and the country in the midst of its hottest summer on record, it is clear the UK is desperate for rain. All of Wales and nearly three-quarters of England are currently in drought, with some areas of the South not seeing a drop of rain for well over a month. Millions of households are under hosepipe bans and several areas in England are facing water bans or being asked to conserve water to avoid suppliers running dry. Prime Minister Andy Burnham chaired a Cobra meeting last week to address the extreme conditions, and said “Britain is a tinderbox” due to the heat and drought. Shorts Large parts of the UK will soon see a reprieve, with rain forecast later this week. While some areas of Scotland have seen regular showers throughout the summer, for some of the driest areas, this may be their first significant rainfall in months. Showers, heavy rain and thunderstorms this week The sweltering temperatures seen last week will decline significantly this week, with Met Office meteorologist Tom Morgan saying: “It’s turning cooler and more changeable through the week ahead for many of us.” Many might even see “some quite menacing skies” with dark rain clouds later in the week, he said. Monday and Tuesday won’t see much of a difference for many areas. Morgan said that for many parts Monday “will be a largely dry day”, with “very warm conditions” lingering in some parts. Monday evening will see “some heavy bursts of rain” across Northern Ireland, Scotland and northeast England. Overnight, the rest of England “will generally turn more showery”. It is forecast to rain in large parts of the UK this week – the first time in months for some areas (Photo: William Dax/SWNS) While he warned this could be fairly insignificant, he added that “some places will be quite lucky and see several millimeters of rain by the morning”. Once again, northeast Scotland will have a particularly wet morning on Tuesday, though there is also a chance of showers in the southwest of England and the South Coast. The real reprieve for the driest areas of the country will come later in the week. By Wednesday, Morgan said it will become “more changeable”, with “a greater chance of some heavy showers and some thunderstorms for many”. “By Thursday some heavy downpours, potentially quite slow moving, so some longer spells of rain for some,” he added. It will turn cooler as well, with temperatures set to drop slightly below average for the time of year. Historic drought The whole of Wales and 45 million people in England are now in drought. According to the Environment Agency, many areas have received less than 1mm of rainfall this month. Despite a wetter-than-average winter, July saw just 10 per cent of average seasonal rainfall, while August has only had 6 per cent of expected rainfall to date. Rivers are drying up, with 15 sites now classified as “exceptionally low” and five reservoirs now classed at the same critical level. Tittesworth Reservoir in the Staffordshire Moorlands showing low water levels (Photo: Christopher Furlong/Getty) Professor Hannah Cloke, a hydrologist at the University of Reading, said the UK’s water network “does not build years of storage into the system, so one wet winter does not guarantee healthy reservoir levels through a dry year”. This winter’s rain did top up supplies, she said, but “an exceptionally dry and hot spring and summer” drained them again just as fast. In 2025, the government announced plans for nine new reservoirs across Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, Oxfordshire, Somerset, Suffolk, Kent, East Sussex and the West Midlands. But reservoirs take decades to build, and even once they are finished, they won’t solve Britain’s water problem alone, experts warned. One heatwave a month The UK has seen a seemingly endless series of heatwaves this summer, with temperatures peaking at 38.1°C at Kew Gardens in London on 13 August – the hottest day of the year so far. “This current spell of extreme heat is the latest in a remarkable summer. Numerous temperature records have been broken and we’ve seen an exceptionally dry season across much of England and Wales too,” Met Office chief forecaster Neil Armstrong said. Much of southern England’s parks are parched due to a lack of rain and record-breaking heat (Photo: Brook Mitchell/Getty) So far, the UK has had at least one heatwave every month since May. The 37 days from 30 June to 5 August counted as the UK’s second-longest heatwave. The Government announced on Friday it was temporarily banning the sale of disposable barbecues, blaming the single-use grills for a string of wildfires over the summer. Shortly after the announcement, an emergency alert was sent to millions of phones warning of a “very high risk of wildfires” across England and Wales, telling people not to light disposable barbecues, firepits, garden incinerators or fireworks. The Prime Minister told BBC Radio Live: “Britain is a tinderbox right now. Setting a fire in any outdoor setting of any kind is a risk to other people’s homes, it’s a risk to other people’s lives, don’t do it, please don’t do it.”