The Environment Agency and Met Office have both warned that parts of England could see drought conditions persist into 2026 unless autumn and winter rainfall is well above normal — a legacy of the driest spring in over a century and a summer of repeated heatwaves.
Counterintuitively, that same dry, hardened ground makes flash flooding more likely when heavy rain does arrive, since parched soil can't absorb it quickly. The Flood Resilience Taskforce is meeting to review preparedness as the UK's autumn storm season begins, and the Environment Agency has flagged that early heavy rain on hard ground can also wash pollutants into waterways.