Hosepipe ban looms amid ‘medium’ drought risk as England suffers driest start to spring since 1950s

England could face drought conditions this summer after the driest start to spring in almost 70 years, the Environment Agency has said.

Reservoirs in the country are dropping, and farmers are struggling to grow crops after the sunniest April on record, preceded by less than half the average rainfall in March.

A “medium” risk of summer drought has been declared, and while there are currently no hosepipe bans planned, this is one of the agency’s possible courses of action, as it warned that water companies might have to use measures including restrictions in the coming months.

The government’s national drought group is meeting on Wednesday, with ministers, senior agency officials, water companies, and other groups set to discuss the risk of drought without sustained rainfall.

Water companies will likely be warned to do more to cut leaks and help customers use water more widely.

The warning comes after England’s driest start to spring in March and April since 1956.

April was the sunniest on record, as just 56% of the expected rainfall was recorded across the UK as a whole, and just half the average rainfall for England, Met Office figures showed.

That followed less than half (43%) of the average rainfall across the UK in March, with England getting a quarter of the rain it would normally expect for the month.

Sky News weather producer Chris England said drought concerns were down to the fact it had been “very warm overall”, which he put down to “a meandering jet stream, which can cause either high or low temperatures and rainfall, depending on where the meanders are”.

He said that it’s “what is expected from a warming Arctic”.

“This year, high pressure has often been located over or near the UK, blocking the passage of the fronts we normally get,” he added.

Reservoirs in England are 84% full, even less than in the drought year of 2022, when levels were at 90%.

Levels in northeast and northwest England, are either notably low or exceptionally low.

Farmers have had to start irrigating crops early, with more pressure on their onsite storage reservoirs.

River flows across northern and central England are below normal or lower for this time of year and wildfires have been seen in areas including Cumbria, Derbyshire and Dorset due to dry vegetation, the agency said.

The weather has flipped between extremes in the past few years, with drought and record-breaking heatwaves in 2022, followed by record wet conditions, and now a return to low rainfall.

National Farmers’ Union (NFU) vice president Rachel Hallos said “farmers in some parts of the country have started to irrigate crops much earlier than normal” and warned recent extreme weather patterns are “impacting our ability to feed the nation”.

Jenna Hegarty, head of policy at the Nature Friendly Farming Network, said it shows “we urgently need more support to scale up nature-friendly and climate-smart farming”.