Eastern England's soils hit record dryness in summer 2026

Soil moisture deficit in millimetres

Guardian graphic: Source: Met Office HadUKāˆ’Grid. Modelled by Dr Tim Farewell (MapleSky). Soil moisture deficit: the amount of water missing from the soil to return it to field capacity (where soil is saturated, with extra water having drained away). In practice 1mm of water on the chart equals 1 litre of water missing per square meter of soil