England has just had its driest July on record, with rainfall at 7% of the long-term average, and drought has been declared across half the country. This is the second severe drought in three years, following 2022 and 2025 – a clustering that is itself running ahead of what earlier projections treated as a plausible worst case.
The UK's hydrological models are good, sometimes world-leading, but the observed trajectory of 2025–26 is testing the upper bounds of what several planning scenarios assumed. This event asks the following question: what changes in how we model, and how we plan, when reality is rapidly outrunning projections previously seen as robust?
For further information, please contact:
BEI Events Team | events@britishexpertise.org
