Mostly dry conditions forecast for next week as West Midlands still in drought

While parts of northern England had their drought status downgraded to ‘recovery’ recently, other areas in the UK remain in severe drought.

Mostly dry conditions are forecast for the week ahead as parts of the UK including the West Midlands remain officially in drought, forecasters have said.

High pressure is to bring mostly settled weather, despite some blustery showers in places, the Met Office said.

While parts of northern England had their drought status downgraded to “recovery” after a week of heavy rain, some areas remain in severe drought.

All of northwest England, including Greater Manchester and Cumbria, was moved to recovery status on Wednesday after England experienced its wettest week for two years, the Environment Agency (EA) said.

However, severe drought remains in place across parts of the South West and Sussex, including areas in Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset, East Sussex and West Sussex.

The West Midlands and much of Wales also remains in drought after the UK’s hottest summer since records began in 1884.

At least 120 per cent of average rainfall is needed over the next six months for the entire country to be out of drought by next spring, the EA said.

Tom Morgan, meteorologist at the Met Office, told the Press Association about the coming week: “High pressure will dominate, which is still unfortunately bad news for southern regions in particular, which are experiencing the severe drought conditions that we’ve seen for several months now.

“There may well be a few showers at times, particularly in Kent, very far south-east of England tomorrow (Monday) and on Tuesday.

“But for all other parts of the UK, it’s largely going to be dry.”

Patchy rain in the south is expected to clear on Sunday evening, despite a few coastal showers in the north and east, the Met Office said.

Conditions should remain mostly dry with sunny spells on Monday, despite some showers set to affect northern, eastern and south-eastern areas and to be heaviest in the far South East.

Temperatures should remain near average for early November, the forecaster said.

Later this week, Britons should experience a mix of cloud and sunny spells with a few scattered showers.

Most areas are set to stay dry, with chilly starts and near average daytime temperatures.

Mr Morgan said the dry conditions mean many could be out on Bonfire Night on Thursday.

He told PA: “The weather does mean that we do have bonfires, celebrations, events rather going on through this week.

“There could be quite a lot of kind of smoke and trap kind of poor visibilities at times because of that, because of the high pressure.

“But we’re not really expecting that to cause too many hazards.”

A yellow fog warning was in place across parts of England and Wales until Sunday morning, with some dense fog patches bringing visibility down to less than 100 metres in certain areas. It came just days after England was battered with rain, leading to increased river levels in many parts of the country.

Storms Austen and Boelo caused England to have its wettest week since October 2024.

Austen triggered an amber warning from the Met Office for strong winds and rain across Cornwall and parts of Devon on October 23, along with a yellow warning for much of central and southern England.