England and Wales just had their driest July since weather records began in 1836, according to the Met Office. England got only 6.5mm of rain the entire month — about 10% of what it usually gets. The old record was 13.4mm, set back in 1911. Wales got 9.3mm, about 9% of its normal rainfall. Southern England had it worst of all, with just 1.9mm, which is only 3% of what the region typically sees in July.

Nineteen counties in England got one millimetre of rain or less for the whole month. July 2026 was also the sixth month in a row with warmer-than-usual temperatures in England. It was England's second-warmest July on record and Wales's joint-warmest. The Met Office said southern and eastern areas were especially dry, with southern England having its driest July in nearly 190 years of records The Guardian.

By the middle of July, things were already bad. The UK had only had 42% of its normal summer rainfall by that point. The country had also already beaten the total number of very hot days (above 30°C) that were recorded in the whole of 1976 — a year people in Britain often bring up when talking about famous heatwaves Met Office. Even more striking, 2026 was the first year on record to hit 35°C in the UK during May. By 31 July, England was on track for about 5.6mm of rain for the month. The BBC reported that England and Wales were heading toward their driest July since records began BBC.

The effects on water supplies came fast. In the week before 3 August 2026, half of England and all of Wales were officially declared to be in drought. A drought declaration means authorities have decided that water shortages are serious enough to require special action. About 40% of England's population was put under a hosepipe ban, which means people are not allowed to use hosepipes to water their gardens, wash their cars, or fill paddling pools The Guardian.

People often compare this to the famous 1976 drought in England. In 1976, a long dry spell from spring through summer led to standpipes in streets and emergency water rationing. But the comparison is not a perfect one. In 1976, the problem built up over many months of low rainfall. In 2026, the record comes from one extremely dry month on top of an already warm and dry first half of the year.

Here is why that matters: when temperatures stay high for months, more water evaporates from soil and plants. So even before July's rainfall nearly disappeared, the ground and reservoirs were already losing water faster than usual because of the heat. The dry July made a bad situation much worse.

A drought declaration is not just a label. In England, the Environment Agency works with water companies to decide when to declare drought, and it sets off a series of planned responses. Water companies can lower water pressure in pipes to reduce usage, step up efforts to find and fix leaks, and speed up measures like connecting different reservoirs together. In extreme cases, they can apply for emergency permission to take water from sources they would not normally use. The hosepipe bans now in place — officially called "temporary use bans" under a 2010 law — affect 40% of England's population, which is a larger area than during the 2022 drought, when similar bans were more concentrated in specific regions.

The broader context here is that summer 2026 has been extreme from the start. Reaching 35°C in May for the first time on record and beating 1976's hot-day count by mid-July both show that the heat behind this drought was not just a one-month event. The warm stretch from February through July meant the water system was already stressed before July's rain almost completely failed. Reservoir levels, soil moisture, and river flows going into August reflect six months of unusual warmth, not just the July rainfall numbers in the headlines. Water companies and the Environment Agency will be watching these combined effects as they decide whether to step up their drought response in the coming weeks — especially if dry weather continues into August and early September, which are normally low-rainfall months anyway.