A view of a dried up pond in the village of Northend in Oxfordshire
(Picture: PA Wire)Droughts could be declared across large parts of the UK from Friday, reports have suggested, in the most severe warning yet.
Sky News has said a source from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has said the declaration will be in “quite a few regions,” - beyond the earlier suggestion that it could be contained in the south west.
While the drought is not expected to be declared across the whole country, it could see more areas be given hosepipe bans, like Thames Water has already issued.
Little rainfall has been felt in London this week and the Met Office has given amber warnings for heat. July was declared as England’s driest since 1935.
Meanwhile, a university professor has warned that people should "be careful" about wishing for heavy rain to cool down temperatures - as a downpour could lead to flash floods.
Rob Thompson, who is part of the University of Reading's meteorology department, posted a video of an experiment on Twitter which used three glasses of water on different grass surfaces to demonstrate what happens when it rains after a drought.
In the first experiment, a glass of water is put on top of wet grass and rapidly soaks into the ground, with the second experiment highlighting that water soaks into grass during a normal summer at a slower pace.
In the final experiment, the water is placed on to what appears to be dry grass and does not seem to budge, highlighting the potential for flash floods to occur if heavy rain follows a heatwave.
Dr Thompson told the PA news agency: "Britain desperately needs rain to break this drought.
"But we should be careful what we wish for.
"Experience around the world has shown what can happen when heavy rain follows a very dry and hot period that has baked the soil hard.
"The water can't soak in easily, most of it just runs straight off the surface, which can quickly turn into flash floods.”
