So it is August now, and it’s been 32 days since it last rained in Southampton.
We have a local weather station, which very handily has its own website.
As of today, the 2nd August, it is reading zero rain in the last 32 days. Yes, a country famous for its continuous complaining about the rain, hasn’t experienced it for over a month.
(from Southampton Weather)
We did have a small sprinkling of rain on the 26th, but it was a very light sprinkling. Evidently it was not enough to even set off the rain sensors, which are reportedly accurate to 0.1 mm, so it must have been less than that.
July is normally the driest month in Southampton, as you can see from the graph below, but to have no rain at all? Something that has not been recorded since 2008.
(from Southampton Weather)
More than half of the UK is now experiencing a drought, a situation made worse for people because as a country, we have made it functionally impossible to build new ones.
Our water is privatised, and for profit, with a regulator which allowed it to be sold off to private equity. A regulator which is so ineffective, the people of the UK have had to build monitoring websites, so we can double-check if visiting the seaside will result in us swimming in our own sewage. That is to say, our water infrastructure is no longer fit for purpose.
I really hope that this rainless July is not representative of things to come. Realistically I know with climate change it is, but I can hope.