Swathes of England are in drought after weeks without rain and scorching temperatures, the Environment Agency announced, as temperatures reached 35.2C on Thursday – the seventh day of the year when 35C or higher was recorded in the UK.
The government body has declared an official drought in around half the country – East Anglia, Hertfordshire and the whole of London, Thames Valley, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, Devon and Cornwall, the West Midlands, and Wessex – covering Dorset, Somerset, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire.
