The UK Drought of 1976

With every Summer seemingly getting hotter in the UK it’s no wonder that scientists are warning of yet another water shortage. Will we ever experience the heat that Brits were faced with back in 1976?

If you were old enough to remember, the Summer of ’76 was the start of a heatwave that broke UK records. Spanning from June 22nd to August 26th, a total of 9 weeks, the UK was hit with the driest months for more than 250 years!

Temperatures fluctuated between 30˚C and 35˚C for months with 35.9˚C being the highest temperature recorded. Furthermore, towns were also faced without any rain for up to 45 days. In fact, the UK had never recorded temperatures above 32.2˚C in its history.

Upon realising the impact of the heat wave, it was decided that a water hose ban was to be put in place for the first time ever as rivers across the North of England completely dried out. Due to the shortage of water, the price of food also started to increase as it was becoming almost impossible to grow certain crops. Approximately £500 million worth of crops were destroyed due to the severe temperatures.

As if water and food shortage wasn’t enough, fire fighters were faced with dangerous bush fires, mainly occurring across the county of Somerset. With water being the only method of putting out the fires, this only added to the problems that the people of England were facing.

The scorching weather lasted right through until the end of August when, finally, thunderstorms broke the pattern of dry weather and rain poured down onto the land.

The rain was a huge relief but the problems of a drought did not end there. The ground had become so dry that the rain water had nowhere to go and flood warnings were announced over many parts of the UK.

Eventually the UK drought of 1976 came to an end. Ground started to soak up the rain and the rivers and lakes returned to normal. Rain continued across September and October and the people of England were relieved when Winter arrived for a bit of cold weather!