I hope the mods don't mind a designated thread for this. We have a heatwave thread for temperature but how about a thread that talks about the dryness ?

On the train travelling across Kent it is apparent that the embankments are now yellow and will soon turn brown as the dryness and heat intensifies.

I'm sure it wont be too long before such dryness moves north.

Photo's would be good too.

7 days here now without any rain....it could be some considerable time before that happens again.

 

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Now, that is true, and I thought the same thing this morning. My poor lawn is now starting to look very thirsty where it's turning straw-coloured in places (I can imagine our Jiries grinning in glee). Mind you, my house sits on an embankment made up of rubble from previous slum dwellings so it's never going to retain moisture that well anyway.
   Humidity got down to as low as 45% the other day, that will have sucked the moisture right out of the top soil but at least the homeowners in us are appreciating the fast and easy outdoor laundry drying, especially what with this breezy wind.
 
Looks like farmers will have an early harvest after what was a slow start to the growing season! Also it won't be long before them thar hills to the north of the town will also take on the same straw colour as my lawn.

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The grass here isn't growing, or is growing very slowly - over a month since I last mowed it.

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Hi Steve - just got back from a night away near Bournemouth. Grass very parched down there although I have seen worse. The key is the amount of sun in my view. Its certainly been dry to average depending on where you are but the long sunny days and the recent winds have really accentuated things

It's already v dry up here, lots of yellow/brown lawns and village greens

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That is interesting. I was studying Tuesday's data and noted that there was a very sharp fall in relative humidity between noon and 3pm. Infact the RH of 34% bang on 3pm was the lowest my VP2 has recorded in the 5 years its been recording. Dewpoint fell back to 5.8c in response.

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There were reports of some Forest fires locally across the country but so far they have been contained and put out.

The fire risk of this dryness continues will only grow.

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This is certainly looking like a noteable dry spell, especially after the other extreme last year! On 8 consecutive dry days here so far. Only a very slight chance that my area catches any showers that could break out around mid-week over England. Looking very dry - a challenge when you're a gardener on a hill of sand!

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Yep been very dry recently and looks to carry on and on, the field here slowly turning a yellowy shade now - bleached by the sun. For somewhere like here on the western side of the Pennines it's quite something to experience at the moment, the grass hasn't been anything other than green or white since July 2006. Just a couple of thunderstorms a week would be good in between sun so my horses can eat some proper grass rather than the increasing straw! they enjoy green better.

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Fields where hay making or for silage are turning brown.farmer cut paddock behind bungalow yesterday said.he wants rain to makeit grow again .But that ain't going to happen..

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There's been just 20mm of rain here since June 1st.

Yep things are starting to take on a yellowish tinge around here too.

Starting to remind a little bit of 1995 when everything went brown, LOL. 

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Not looking too bad here yet, but this month we've had just 0.5mm and atm it looks like we're relying entirely on thundertsorms to add any more over at least the next 2 weeks and quite possibly into August.

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Blimey, really?

Twice a week for me .

Like to see the stripes in it

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Just for fun, let's imagine something. Imagine the months up to and including March 2012, followed by April to now in 2013. We would have a national emergency. Trees would be dying, never mind grass.

I was in Pembrokeshire this April and noticed even back then that the grass was on its way to yellow, partly no doubt because of the cold and lack of growth, but also as I saw on the soil moisture charts later, a deficit that has kept growing since.

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Mind you, this isn't exactly a unique occurance . . .

This is my street last August. Yes, even though the rest of the UK were suffering with flooding and deluges, my neck of the woods remained quite parched-looking due to below average rainfalls:

It was drier still in the Summer of 2011 as this image of the town's sports/football field shows. That summer wasn't at all well known for warm temperatures but the lack of rainfall was more noticeable.



The Summer of 2010 on the other hand was a green one due to regular thundery-type activity.

However, the summer of 2006 was tinder dry! I didn't think my lawn could ever recover from this but grass is such a resilient beast.

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Grass isn't growing much... creeping bloody buttercup and clover is though.

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Yup. It's pretty much static. If I mowed it, it might grow a little bit again, but would probably stop growing once it reaches a similar length.

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3 weeks without any rain maybe interested but only 2 weeks?? Hardly noteworthy in this neck of woods 😃

Just 2.7mm of rain recorded here so far this month and 8 successive days without measurable rainfall.  There was a bit of drizzle in the air on Tuesday night but it barely wet the pavement.

Cant see much evidence here of the current dry spell. Thats due to Junes rainfall which was very near average here.

Those and daisies are almost all I have on my 'lawn' these days!   But even they're not growing too much atm

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June was a fraction over average here - but Jan-May had all been below average.

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Yes, "lawn" is a strange term to use. My front lawn is mainly moss than glows fluorescent in certain light, and the back one is creeping buttercup and clover, with dandelions thrown in for good measure. Flowers, veg, fruit, bushes, hedges, trees... I can handle most of that. "Lawns" are the gardening bane of my life.

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We had around 16mm here in June - and only 1mm or so in July so far.

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