July 2026 was the driest for England and Wales since records began 190 years ago, according to the Met Office.
It reports that England has seen just 5.6mm of rainfall up to 30 July – just 8% of its long-term meteorological average for the month and less than half of the previous record of 13.4mm set in 1911.
For Wales it is 7.9mm of rainfall, also 8% of its long-term average for the month and almost a third of the previous record of 22.6mm, again set in 1911.
The UK as a whole is currently on track for its third driest July, and driest nationally since 1868. The photographs of the landscape in England this summer show how parched and barren it looks. The tinder dry conditions have obviously caused the rash of wildfires which have happened there this summer.
