American Reacts to Drought in Britain: During and After

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In this video I react to the severe drought that took place in Britain in 2022. I'm shocked to learn that the UK even has droughts as I just assumed the weather always produced enough rain and it was always very lush and green.
Here I get to see side by side images of different locations in England during and after the drought. It's amazing to see just how dry and brown Britain was last year and now because of a lot of rain this summer it's back to its normal, beautiful green landscape.
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[@wrorchestra1]

Look at the fields during a drought and dark lines start appearing. They mark the position of buried ruins and makes it easier to locate for future archaeological digs.

[@leestirling4623]

That's a worry because the government usually target our ancient sites and destroy them like they did with the valley of the Kings, just plowed through it to put up those wind turbines which destroy the environment. Or when they were making the road from Cardiff to Barry bigger and they found ancient British artifacts and just reburied them. Of course if it's noticed before they can destroy it then they call it roman or viking and their only reasoning is that it dates to roman or viking tines even though it clearly has the coelbren alphabet on it which is the ancient British alphabet which the claim is a hoax. This has been going on forever and there's actually people out there who trust the government. The same government who is actively involved in covering up 60 years of our kids being gang ray ped by mus lims.

[@Outnumberedbykidsandcats]

It irritated me last summer too to see comments from Texas, Kentucky and other places where it can get really hot asking why we make such a fuss about it. I just said to them that they all have air conditioning so to switch that off for a couple of months day and night and see how we have to live here since pretty much no homes have air con. I bet they couldn’t do a day or two.

[@gmdhargreaves]

I know right! I measured 48c, 120F in my bungalow in 2021! ATTEMPT to sleep in that or even function!

[@reactingtomyroots]

That sounds pretty awful!

[@weshall5679]

Also our homes are constructed to retain heat. So imagine no aircon in a home built to keep as much heat in as possible. Sweatfest!!

[@fleshen]

@@weshall5679 That is a big thing a lot of Americans don't understand!

[@RoswellCrash]

30 degree heat in the U.K. is different to 30 degree heat in the US or Europe. Even the Spanish will tell you that.

[@chrissymoss514]

I clearly remember 1976 as being, quite possibly, the driest summer that I can think of. It was weeks and weeks of sunshine. Of course, being a youngster, it never bothered me, but I'm sure many people suffered. No other draught has been as impactful as that summer, I mean, we even had standpipes in the street, the water had to be collected in buckets and large tubs as water in the home had been disconnected.

[@mariahoulihan9483]

I had just turned 20 and was sent to London on a new fangled Word Processing Course. a week near Regents Park. Boiling wasn;t the word for it. I was in a nice hotel paid for by work back in the Cotswolds.. and it thankfully had air conditioning in my room. As soon as I left the hotel however, it was baking hot. the place the course was held.. IBM. had air con as well. I will never forget that summer. the standpipes.. due to water shortages. TO THIS VERY DAY I do not leave the tap running when brushing my teeth.. such a waste. Also we had to use little water for a bath and then Dad would scoop it out for his plants. lol. ditto the washing up bowl. To be honest, I am quite frugal with water compared to some of my younger friends and my water meter shows that. I feel certain it all stems back to that summer.

[@Joanna-il2ur]

My dad picked me up from college and in the boot were all my albums. We drive towards home but he wanted to stop off and hang out with a couple he and my mum had met in holiday, who happened to live on our route. They had prepared lunch and wanted a long chat which took several hours. By the time we got home, every LP I owned was totally warped by the heat.

[@Joanna-il2ur]

@@mariahoulihan9483 water just goes down the drain, into the sewer, is cleaned and goes back into the reservoir. Wasting water is something we were told not to do, but nearly all is recycled.

[@ricci8497]

I remember this one as well we didn't even have running water we had to collect water from a water tank left in the street and I remember how it ended with a huge thunderstorm. That thunderstorm had me running in the street naked and refusing calls from my mum to go in.

[@CW1971]

@@Joanna-il2ur we went on holiday to Butlins in 76 with my nan and grandad, my nan was a bit of a kleptomaniac and used to pinch all the little packs of condiments from the tables including the little foil wrapped butter packets, she shoved dozens of them into her suitcase before we drove home 5 hours from Scotland. By the time we got home all their clothes stunk of rancid melted butter and there was puddles of grease in the bottom of their suitcase 😂

[@WG1807]

1976 was the one. We even had a plague of ladybirds (ladybugs) which got a mention in Parliament.

[@DavidSmith-cx8dg]

1976 was longer and we were less prepared to cope . Sport minister Denis Howell was given the brief to cope with the crisis and became known as the Rainmaker as it started raining almost as soon as he was appointed and didn't stop for weeks . A few years later he became minister for snow - it melted overnight . Last year was severe , the sun does seem to burn more nowadays and it did become alarming to see the grass and other plants brown and parched . The rain whilst a holiday nuisance has revitalised things this year but there does seem to be a trend towards longer dry spells in the South at least .

[@fleshen]

I was living in Spain for two months in hot weather but when l came home at the end of August l was shocked at how hot and dry it was here!

[@markharris1125]

1976 lives long in the memory for the older ones like me! It was the first time in my memory - I'd never been to Spain or anywhere hot - that it was warm when you stepped outside at 6am. I was in the sixth form at school and for the first time in the school's history we were allowed to take our blazers off and undo the top shirt button. People often forget that 1975 was a fabulous summer, hot and sunny but with enough breaks that everything stayed green as the sun shone down. 76 was pretty terrible because we were so unprepared for this constant heat and dryness.

[@bordersw1239]

Blimey , that brings back some memories, I remember my dad driving us past his house just after they discovered the IRA had planted a bomb under his car.

[@andrewgill2561]

1976 was the year I left school & started work on our family sheep farm, I spent about 10 hours a day on horseback riding the moors making sure all our sheep and lambs were ok & getting enough water, I was riding in shorts & training shoes, no shirt, by the end of summer I could easily have passed for a black African (no racism intended), I wasn’t just tanned, I was black & I wish we could have more summers like 1976.

[@catherinewhite8819]

It was so bad and prolonged that the government appointed a Minister for Drought. Milton Keynes was a new city being built and tree planting was prolific in the ‘70s. A saying grew: Plant a tree in ‘73 Plant some more in ‘74 Keep them alive in ‘75

[@dilligaf73]

There was a small village on the outskirts of London called Wennington. Wennington became famous in those droughts. It caught light in the heatwave. Started off by a compose heap in someone's garden. They weren't home but their next door neighbour was. They tried putting the fire out with a hose but the fire was too much already because the ground was so dry. The fire moved so quickly that in no time it had caught their garden alight and both houses started burning. They realised there was nothing they could do so ran around to houses to get the people out. The fire spread rapidly and many lost their homes. The fields all around caught fire. The fire men couldn't get a hold on it, they had tractors spreading water which also didn't help. The fire somehow didn't touch the church. It burnt all around it but one foot all around the church was left untouched which saved the church. This church was built in 1100s so very old. There's even a fire station located in the village but they had already been called out to an earlier fire so wasn't there. Their building was spared...just! The first two houses that had caught light were just shells, other houses needed demolishing aswell. No people were killed thanks to one family. The family who tried to stop it at the beginning and who lost everything of theirs while helping the resting if the village. This family were on the news about it. This family are my parents friends. One dog and two cats were killed in the fire. Yhe Road was closed for a long time. The residents had to find other dwellings to stay at. The people whose houses were left untouched helped by having the homeless sleep in their house and shared food and drink between all the villagers. This village has lots of history. It's being rebuilt now. It's green again now but it has forever changed now. My parents friend's house has still not started being built as there's been many problems along the way. A year on, the village is green again. My friend who has a KZbin channel did a documentary a few weeks ago and flew drone over to show the difference. I know it was on TV in most of the world.

[@Trundlebugg]

In 2020 we had over 3 months without rain and I was able to walk down the bed of the local river which was just a trickle (never dried out in my lifetime), this was just a few miles from Capel Curig, the wettest place in Wales. We also had huge die backs of young trees that didn’t have root systems developed enough to survive and in places any sapling under about 4-5 didn’t survive. 2022 wasn’t as bad in the area but worse for other parts of the country!

[@AdrianBawn]

Theres a castle near me that, has some grass fields inside it. During the drought the ground dried up so much that it revealed some ruins under the ground that no-one knew were there. Due to the different depths of the dirt, some bits were more dry than others and the outline of the ruins was obvious on the grass as a result.

[@reactingtomyroots]

Ruins being discovered definitely sounds like a perk to the droughts. :)

[@briankeniry219]

2022 was nothing compared the 1976 - that was an amazing year and not repeated yet!

[@veronicawilliams7427]

My remembrance of that year. it was horrendous we where all p"praying for the rain to come. That's when It did come I stood outside in my back garden and got soaking wet, it was "pure bliss".

[@orwellboy1958]

I remember an Indian tribe members coming over and doing a rain dance. Also my motorbike falling over as it sank in to the tarmac.

[@trevor_1963]

'76 lasted longer, '22 was much hotter, in the south east at least.

[@christineharding4190]

I remember during the '76 drought many smaller rivers completely dried up and "experts" told us it would take 20 years to recover. However 12 months later, after normal rainfall, the country was back to normal.

[@johnmannymoo8626]

I remember the road melting in my village, slow rivers of tarmac running along the curb.

[@Thee_Penguin]

To put it into perspective 40°c is over 10 degrees higher than our summer average 🥵. It was so hot that the adhesive gluing my vinyl flooring down was melting and moving under my feet (London this was)

[@CUFC247]

The drought in 1976, was living in Suffolk and the back garden developed great wide and deep cracks in the lawn, my mum lost her wedding ring down one.

[@etherealbolweevil6268]

Drought eh! Spent the first half hour of the day most days rigging up tarpaulins to keep us dry.

[@lesdonovan7911]

This is the difference between the south and the north of England I do not think they realise how dry and hot it can get in the south.

[@jeanneale9257]

It's a east west divide weather wise The rain comes in from the west dumping its load By the time it gets east its load is far less

[@mariahoulihan9483]

I live in Suffolk now. the fields around me went like that last year and in previous years.. deep ruts.

[@CUFC247]

@@jeanneale9257 I can testify to that after Suffolk moved to Somerset, we got all the rain that missed dropping on Ireland and Wales.

[@sharpiesfishandphantoms]

Hi Steve, in Norfolk (beautiful and historic county well worth checking out) last year we were having wildfires and a good chunk of the village of Ashill was torched. The heat was horrific for me but the weirdest part was walking on the grass and having it crunch underfoot. Hosepipe bans were in abundance and the roads were melting, give me cool and wet any day of the week.

[@davidsmith8728]

Also from Norfolk - apparently we have about 25% LESS rainfall than most of the rest of the UK. Typically, the rain comes in from the Atlantic and begins dumping in Cornwall, Devon, Somerset etc., and by the time it gets over to us, there isn't a deal left.

[@reactingtomyroots]

Yeah, same here on the cool and wet. Wildfires are scary!

[@vallee3140]

I just love this time of year hate all that heat.

[@1justme]

Oh yeah! The train lines and Runways were melting too! I'd forgotten about that!

[@JohnEdwards-r2l]

Hello again Steve. May I recall the summer of 76 a really hot year with the tarmac oozing out from under the cars and trucks on the roads, and we got a "Minister for Drought ". Denis Howell was so good as I remember he was appointed on a Friday in August . It started to rain on the following Monday and hardly stopped till January.

[@lynnemacfadzean4855]

yeah we were advised to share our baths🤣🤣🤣

[@gmdhargreaves]

It has been hotter and longer 21 years since 1976! Get over it!

[@karenblackadder1183]

@@gmdhargreaves Not in Cumbria. We judge a drought by whether or not Mardale emerges from her grave.

[@sammieholehouse6480]

We had one in 1976 too

[@martindunstan8043]

Yep, that one was better as I was a kid🤣👍

[@58jennypenny]

I was working in town then, fetching up tarmac on the bottom of your shoes then.

[@juliarabbitts1595]

First we never have a “dust bowl” as you would understand it in the UK. Even when we have a drought we usually gave some rain just not enough. But droughts do have some good outcomes, often interesting archaeological sites only show up when we have a drought.

[@charlielouise2428]

A village near me was flooded in the 1950's to make a reservoir. When we have droughts it completely dries up and you can walk around the ruined houses and church

[@leestirling4623]

Then the government rushes in and destroys it or claims it as viking or saxon or roman. Anything but British. Even if it has the coelbren alphabet on it which is the ancient British alphabet which they of course try to say is a hoax made by one man even though we keep finding things buried dating back a thousand years before said man lived.

[@Joanna-il2ur]

Yep, crop marks indicating ancient walls and ditches just below the surface.

[@charlielouise2428]

@ginacable5376 there were two villages, Derwent and Ashopton, they're under the Ladybower Reservoir in the Peak District

[@steverpcb]

I am watching this from the holiday caravan site next to Burton Bradstock shown in the photos !

[@orwellboy1958]

We live in a temperate climate, sometimes we get a lot of rain, sometimes we get a long hot summer. We are at the mercy of the Gulf Streem. New York gets more rain fall than London, Moscow is on the same latitude as the U.K. and yet it's much colder in winter.

[@vespasian266]

Our rain is shared by east coast america, takes a day or so longer to get here.

[@stevenmutumbu2860]

Very True angain we dont have proper Air conditioners in our houses..

[@CrazyInWeston]

​@@vespasian266No it does not. Many of the low pressure systems we get start in the Atlantic, not from the Pacific. And lets say any of them did, it would take at least 3 days for a fast moving system from the eastern seaboard, let alone having to travel 3000 miles from the western coasts where Vancouver Canada or Seattle, USA is before even reaching the west coast, let alone than even tranversing the Atlantic ocean, of which is another 3000 miles.

[@vespasian266]

@@CrazyInWeston I was talking about the east coast. never mentioned the west coast. west coast weather don't even get past the rockies. hence the deserts.

[@CrazyInWeston]

@@vespasian266 Sorry mate, I often get east/west wrong, I even say it wrong too. (IE head east but I say west and need to go west this way when I mean east) I dont know why. I do understand the direction, its that I always get east/west wrong. I'm the exact same with left and rights. "Its a right here...no sorry a left" I stand corrected on your east coast comment, i had it muddled and I apologise, however, it still takes more than a day for weather systems to get to the UK, even with a sting jet.

[@alanmon2690]

Southern England has a lot of chalk uplands with a thin layer of soil and grass (hence sheep farming) which quickly dries out. The London area is built on clay and water is sucked from the acquifers, causing subsidence problems. The main reservoirs are in the hilly north and Wales where there are plenty of streams/rivers and blockable valleys. Basically, rain comes from the West and hot dry weather comes from East. If the winds don't co-operate then we have extremes.

[@sharonrichardson8434]

Look for videos on Derwent Valley and Ladybower Reservoir during the drought - it's getting more frequent being able to see the remains of the village but last year was crazy with how much was visible

[@astrecks]

It's not unusual; I have photos of Derwent Reservoir bone dry on NEW YEAR's Day back in the '90s

[@reactingtomyroots]

Thanks for the recommendation!

[@rachealbrown2166]

You should look at what happens to Haweswater Reservoir in the Lake District during a hit summer. The remains of a whole village emerge when the water is low.

[@wullaballoo2642]

It rained at night quite often last summer in the north west apart from a couple of weeks here and there when it didn't and the grass ended up patchy and yellow in exposed places. The grass isn't dead when it's yellow, it's just gone into survival mode, it'll recover back to green when it gets enough water. The south and east is much dryer, I remember opening the newspaper amazed at how yellow everything was as it was still green up here

[@mericet39]

When it rains here in the UK, we moan about it. When it hasn't rained for about a week, we miss it.

[@christineharper1637]

In 1976 I was a young mum with a 6 month old baby. Trying to keep my baby cool was a nightmare. He had so many cool baths. You could only have 6 inches of water in the bath. You were encouraged to bath with a friend. Lol.

[@andrewtaylor1196]

As a 8 year old in 1976 wearing short trousers as we all did back then I can remember our teacher a Mrs beddoes taking the class out into the school yard and frying an egg on one of the manhole covers in the school yard to show us that the covers were too hot to sit on and stop us from getting burnt how's that for a practical demonstration lol

[@dawn5227]

We actually had some wild fires last year due to how dry the land was and then the 40c+ heatwave. That is something we never usually have to contend with

[@jemmajames6719]

No it’s always happened actually. Usually it’s people not being careful or deliberately starting fires. Also countries do not take steps to minimise fires now due to conservation idiots.

[@michael_177]

This destroyed my garden last year. All my grass turned brown and the leaves of all the trees died. People on vacation here thought it was Fall / Autumn. In the middle of summer!

[@wildwine6400]

I live near a lot of farm area, and at the time a few fields caught fire from the heat and being so dry. I remember seeing tourist videos around London at the time and was sad seeing all the nice grass in the parks and at Kew Gardens being all scorched brown

[@wellingboroughanddistrictu3a]

Last summer I was out with my walking group. We were crossing a field, the earth was baked so hard it was like iron and ii was filled with a crazy pavement design of deep cracks. Needless to say, we were all very slow and careful as none of us wanted to twist or, even worse, break an ankle in the middle of nowhere!

[@gabbymcclymont3563]

Back in 1992 we had a long drought. I lived in a tiny very old village with the ruin of a pre Norman, Norman castle, said to be the first stone castle. Due to the drought they used drones and the marks showed the castle was bigger than they new. In the field behind my 1,000 year old cottage they found marks for a huge church.

[@reactingtomyroots]

That's pretty crazy!

[@101steel4]

I live on the east coast of England, and it gets like that pretty much every year. The wet July saved us this year, as it was a hot June and everything way already going brown. August and September have been nice and sunny too but we've had the odd day of rain which really helps. I live in the driest town in the whole of the UK, so we're probably a lot diffrent to Wales, Scotland and Ireland 😂

[@1justme]

Yes, it's been a lovely summer here, we're so lucky! We seem to live in a warm, dry bubble. Everywhere else can be storms and they just always seem to pass us by. 😊

[@gmbO48]

2018 was a horrendous year in the UK for drought. I moved house in April of that year, right at the very start of the heatwave, and we didn't have a proper period of cool weather or rainfall for a good six months or so. My new house was a new build with a newly laid lawn and it has never fully recovered from trying to establish itself in such conditions. We were able to water it until the hosepipe ban came into effect, and then it was on its own.

[@Flash81_]

Yes! Glad someone else said 2018, pretty much no rain from March to September, driest and most dead grass I've seen in my 42 years.

[@alanmon2690]

The worst drought was in 1975/76 which brought out standpipes and bowsers. It went on for months and was hot. There were severe water shortages for months. It affected Fish and chips shops as well because of the large potato shortage.

[@davepb5798]

6 weeks of sunshine, good times.

[@cannyexplorer5357]

I remember that. We were collecting our house water in buckets for two weeks. 3:12 Travelling on the Tube in 100F no air con anywhere. It broke on August bank holiday when we then was flooded as we got horrendous storms with very heavy rain.

[@monza1002000]

Yet the temps were around 25C which everyone thought was hot. Now we are regularly hitting 29/30C 😢

[@daveturner5305]

Followed by one of the worst winters since the early 60s.

[@CrazyInWeston]

​@@monza1002000Rubbish, between June 23rd and July 7th, the max temp was no lower than 32.2c for 15 days straight.

[@jonntischnabel]

When you have 70 million people on a relatively small island, it doesn't take long to use the water up.

[@Outnumberedbykidsandcats]

Also to add, last year my dad finished harvesting his farm before we even hit august which has never happened in my life.

[@emilianaught]

Last year I couldn't even leave my house without feeling almost immediate signs of heat stroke, so it was not a fun time. Was stuck indoors for weeks. I am very glad it's been much cooler lately with more rain

[@cazadon]

The uk wont get dust bowl conditions because the field are too small. That's because dust bowl is a very specific condition that needs big fields and a long period of drought so the the wind picks up the dust and small parts of soil from the ground kind of like how sand dunes move in deserts but hedges keep the wind from picking up the soil and what does get picked up get stopped before it can pick up much momentum so that you dont get massive dust clouds forming

[@vallee3140]

It was the most horrible time, I hate the heat generally, but that was awful, I was so glad when it finally rained. We have had another dose this year, but not for as long, thank goodness. Its wonderful how quickly the grass recovers.

[@gallowglass2630]

In ireland we do get droughts .I live in the west of ireland which is the wettest part of these islands in the wettest part of the west of ireland ,but in 2018 we went nearly two months without rain.We had a heatwave in 2022 but it wasn't as bad hotter but didn't last as long.

[@Parker_Douglas]

In Scotland you make the most of a heatwave when they come around as we don’t often get them . Everyone is out in their gardens some in their hot tubs who have them weans in their padding pools neighbours sharing the time of day the sun does bring out the best in people in my experience,

[@gallowglass2630]

@@Parker_Douglas Thats the same here for the first two weeks and then the farmers complain .

[@amajinjams6966]

I remember last year was so bad, we put a table cloth over the back door windows because our houses are not made to keep cool but keep warm, the heat really is different and I grew up and lived in the tropics and was suffering, my friend who lives in south Africa all her life she wasn't coping either, it was awful. Lots of people died during that summer as well.

[@XclusiveAaron]

17:30 - That reservoir is 3 miles from my house, never seen it ever quote how dry it was last summer!

[@lottie2525]

I want a quid for every time he says 'wow' ;) Those were pretty amazing before and after shots.

[@reactingtomyroots]

hahah yeah, you'd be rich :)

[@amyw6808]

We didn’t have rain here in Lincolnshire for over 3 months that year. Droughts are relatively common tbh. I remember many hosepipe bans as a child. We can have them over December, where there is no rain for weeks (though the cold temperatures drop it being a big issue) and in 2020 we had stunning weather from March until August, with few rainy days and higher than normal temperatures. Last year, there was a village in Essex where several houses burned to the ground due to the heat. We don’t really have crazy floods. There are places that have flooded (such as around the River Severn or cockermouth) but if you compare those floods to other countries, no - nothing like there! We don’t have the crazy mudslides and burst dams etc you see in other places and deaths are very rare.

[@ranmyaku4381]

The heatwave of 2022 was quite extreme and unusual for Britain and the extent of this is not really seen like this. Something to note would be the type of vegetation in Britain is used to a fairly steady rainfall giving the lush look you usually associate with images of Britain but that also means the same vegetation is not as adept at conserving and storing water and often has shallower roots so can in fact be more vulnerable to droughts when they do happen. I am glad the plants bounced back but I suspect we will be seeing more like this in the future with the affects of climate change more prevalent.

[@suzanneturley4433]

Washout Summer? Got to agree but more like a washout year. ☔️☔️ Yes Steve, meteorological office.

[@ricci8497]

We have had plenty of droughts and honestly, hose pipe bans in recent years have become a norm we've had water reservoirs dry up to the point that villages not seen in decades reappear.

[@IanDarley]

It's quite common to have water restrictions at some point during most summers but last year was pretty extreme. This year spring was very dry but early summer turned unusually wet for about a month.

[@leestirling4623]

Yeh even though we live in an island in the middle of the ocean. And some idiots actually follow those rules. What, they can filter sewage and feed it back to us but not sea water? My God there's no hope for some people.

[@CW1971]

@@leestirling4623 I don't take any notice of water/hosepipe bans but I've got livestock so even if not told officially I still don't think they apply to me

[@CrazyInWeston]

Are you joking? "early summer turned unusually wet for about a month" I dunno where you are living but June 2023 (Which consitutes as early Summer) was the warmest ever June on record beating the previous June record for England by nearly a degree (in C) and where I live had 36 consecutive days without a single drop of rain and over 4 weeks of wall to wall sunshine not a cloud in sight! The rain came in few days into July which is by then Midsummer. @leestirling4623 Fresh drinking water from the ocean is far more expensive than cleaning water from fresh water rivers or reservoirs. The UK doesnt have any of these expensive desalination plants because normally the country is wet enough not to pay for cost of having them.

[@CW1971]

@@CrazyInWeston how you're defining late spring/early summer depends on which method you're using, astronomically summer starts on the solstice so summer doesn't start until 20/21 June in which case we had a hot dry late spring. Or you're defining it meteorologically in which case summer is June July and August so June is early summer. Personally I use the astrological way

[@CrazyInWeston]

@@CW1971 Well technically using astrology, early Summer is May because the longest day of the year should happen mid Summer. That is the longest day of the year and therefore should be right in the middle of "Summer" and using that definition Summer starts in May, the longest day in June and Autumn starts in August. Because you use astrology, those are the actual stated months. How convenient it is then, that factors within the Earth of lag, trade winds and temperature build up, your "Astrology" has Summer starting on the 21st/22nd depending on the year. Oh how it coincides somewhat but with more lag than the metrological Summer of the calandar than an actual astrological one. Funny.

[@sarahjf69]

I was 8 years old in 1976, I remember the stream we lived near drying up completely, and having to walk up the road with bottles to get water from a stand pipe as water was rationed!

[@TheMeerkat2323]

We have droughts a lot more often than people think, especially as we're unfairly labelled as it raining almost every day. Last year's heatwave it did hit 40C in a number of places, a temperature never recorded in the UK before, and was bloody awful for people like me who hate the heat. It's very ironic that we get droughts considering we're a small island surround by water, I wouldn't have thought it would be massively expensive to pump sea water into desalinisation plants and then spread that to areas where water is desperately needed

[@Peterraymond67]

Hi. I certainly remember the drought of 1976. We had no rain for months. The Government, the Labour party was in power, so they promoted one of the lower ministers to the minister in charge of the drought. The newspaper cartoonists made a day of it. There were cartoons of the Minister of Drought doing rain dances around a campfire with a tomahawk in his hands. We were having water cuts when the water was turned off for half a day. Water bowsers were available to get tap water. Bottled water was not available in shops then. Using hoses was banned along with watering gardens. Washing cars was also forbidden. We often have hosepipe bans in some areas. Wash out for us means that the summer, although very dry summer was a waste of time, not wet but too dry, too many risks of fires breaking out. In Wales we have lost a lot of our valleys, especially in Mid & North Wales which were flooded for Liverpool, Birmingham & Manchester’s tap water. One valley near Bala, Tryweryn village was compulsory purchased and the houses, chapel and school were emptied and flooded. The area is now a lake. In 1986 I visited the area and the water level had dropped enough to see the outlines of the village and we could walk along the old Tryweryn high street. Very eerie especially for former residents of the 125 properties drowned. Still a very bitter political problem here with the slogan “Remember Tryweryn”.

[@britbazza3568]

Hi Steve. I used to live in an area of the UK that is known as Britain's only desert. I lived in the south east of England in an area that only receives 0.0003 mm of rain per yr but it was still green everywhere you look. This area has been a desert for decades

[@alieninvention1310]

I think you are misinformed, nowhere in the UK receives only 0.0003mm of rain per year, in fact you'd be hard pressed to find anywhere on earth with that little rainfall (Atamaca Desert maybe)

[@britbazza3568]

@@alieninvention1310 I lived there for my entire life and yes I didn't believe it either when I first heard it but according to the meteorological dept of that area it is correct

[@alieninvention1310]

@@britbazza3568 I doubt it unless there is somewhere in the UK that has less rainfall than death valley (57mm annual rainfall on average) . St Osyth has the lowest rainfall annually in the UK at around 530mm, so where exactly did you live in the UK to receive what equates to no rainfall? (I know you are talking about Dungeness but that has over 700mm of rainfall annually, so many people in the comments got facts about it wrong in his video about Dungeness, less rainfall than the Sahara, really?)

[@elisamcgowan4774]

We had quite a bad drought back in 1976 too, standpipes all over the country, again, food shortages too!.

[@magnolia7277]

This year we had a hosepipe ban in the southeast, not because there wasn't enough water, but because we were using so much as it was so hot, the water companies couldn't process enough to keep pace with demand. My grass goes brown most years.

[@lennymarsh1323]

It hasn't helped that not only have no new reservoirs been built over the last 30 years despite the massive population increase but quite a number of them have been sold off for building land. This has led to blanket hose pipe bans and water shortages in certain areas. When we do get a spot of good weather it's more difficult to manage it as the water management overall is so poor. A lot of London and the south's water supply was sold of in the 90s and water was being tankered down from the North back then after they had sold and filled in the 4 main reservoirs that supplied them. If we had efficient water management we would have minimal drought conditions.

[@suzielees5227]

We adore you in the UK. I’ll be honest, a lot of the UK doesn’t have a lot of patience with brash Americans, but because you are more humble, you get a lot of love. We can’t wait for you to visit. I will be happy to be you and your families official guide in the west country (Devon/Cornwall).

[@Outnumberedbykidsandcats]

I know that everyone in America seems to think it constantly rains in UK and seem amazed when we get beautiful weather. Yes we get good amounts if rain, but my garden goes brown like that pretty much every year. Just because we weren’t on a hosepipe ban every year doesn’t mean it doesn’t scorch our grass most years. This year has just been insanely wet so actually the green ones are the abnormal photos for summer

[@damiendye6623]

Sounds like your lawn is on sand, you in a resent new build by any chance

[@jeanbrown8295]

A few years back there was a severe water shortage in the west of England,and water had to be taken from the Keilder Dam in the East to the western counties,by water tankers,there were 1000 tankers on the road ,24 hrs a day,all the people who lived on the route had to paid compensation for the period that it was in operation.And I can also remember before that,there was a drought in the west country and everyone had to get their water from standpipes in the streets

[@zoebo18]

There was fire's too.. and house's burnt down too x

[@diamondlil7819]

Some of your fellow KZbinrs who have an interest in the UK, came here for the first time last year, expecting it to be wet and quite cool. Instead, they had a miserable time, trying to sight-see in London in unbearable heat, trying to sleep at night in cheap hotels without air con (we have very little because we usually don't need it) and feeling very disappointed in our normally lovely parks and on trips out through our normally beautiful countryside. It made me feel sad that they had seen us at our worst. I remember 1976 when it was very hot - and it went on for weeks. It wasn't much fun. I was in a crowded city centre when it rained for the first time in months. I kid you not: people danced in the streets, LOL. Yes, do a video on Maiden Castle, the Iron Age fort. It is impressively large. And, go to Cambridge. I lived there for some time and the centre is very attractive, filled as it is with ancient colleges. Both Oxford and Cambridge consist of 30+ colleges each which are open to the public except during exams. That shot of Cambridge that you saw is of King's College Chapel which is stunningly beautiful, and is, here, viewed from The Backs, an area that lies next to a river that runs behind quite a few of the colleges: a tour guide will take you in a punt along the river and fill you in on the history of each college that you pass by.

[@claregale9011]

I was 3 yrs old in the 76 heat wave , got an old photo of me and my twin sister sitting in a washing up bowl full of water in the back garden . My step dad was telling me it was the start of ice cream vans becoming popular and thousands of lady birds everywhere 😊

[@lesdonovan7911]

It must of been a nightmare for you both at that age skin so tender, I remember going out on my motorcycle every day just to cool off.

[@diane64yorks]

I remember the ladybirds, I was at high school then, they had all the windows open to let the heat out🙄 they didn't stay open long though as we were all getting bitten by ladybirds, not a pleasant memory 😳 ouch

[@Joanna-il2ur]

We had ice cream vans when I was a little girl, so they were commonplace by the late fifties.

[@claregale9011]

@@Joanna-il2ur maybe he meant more were about . He is getting on a bit bless him .

[@audiocoffee]

1976 was horrendous. and we don't tolerate heat very well. but that was a time of standpipes, water delivery trucks, water rationing, reservoirs so low they were cracking. however, the storms that always follow a drought are always the best. there was also an invasion of ladybirds that year. it was also the first time (and only) that I got sunburnt. and just as we get pretty harsh droughts, we also get some insane flooding too. and we've seen some fairly intense floods. and when we get storms blowing in off the Atlantic, some of those can be pretty fierce too. and we do get tornadoes. they might not be as big as ones in the US, but we do get them - some of those have packed a bit of punch too - and caused damage. the closest I've got to a tornado was watching a funnel forming locally, it never got to the ground, it lost momentum, but if it had formed, it could've done some real damage. we get little dust devils now and then and don't get me started on snow - we either get too much and can't cope but send news reporters out to those places that are going to get snow - and take great delight in watching them get snowed in and unable to move, or we get very little in the way of snow - which takes all the fun out of kids wanting to go out on a plastic sledge. I'm a winter baby, so I love snow 😀 however, where I am, if it snows here, it's ten times worse elsewhere in the area - and we havent really had much snow in recent times, so we're overdue some.

[@RollerbazAndCoasterDad]

Standpipes being the things we attach to the hydrant points in the ground, marked by the H signs in the last video, to turn them into taps.

[@reactingtomyroots]

haha Yeah, we enjoy the snow, too! My daughter especially loves to go sledding.

[@judithhope8970]

Here in Essex we have draught every year. It makes it very difficult to garden but we have got used to it. You should look at some English country gardens. Check out the Royal Horticultural Society's gardens. Wisley, Hyde Hall, Rosemore, Harlow Carr and Bridgewater. They are all over the country and Hyde Hall us just up the road to me. This area is classified as semi desert.

[@CUFC247]

From my school days in the 80's 40c is 104f.(9/5)x40 +32.

[@diane64yorks]

We had another drought in 95, my husband was one of hundreds of tanker drivers moving water from a bore hole in North Yorkshire to Scammonden reservoir because the water levels had dropped dangerously low, the tankering operation went on for a few months, there are photos of the exposed water tower and empty reservoir online.

[@margaretbond21]

We are still on a hosepipe ban in Cornwall. Our dams went seriously low.

[@gallowglass2630]

in summer 2018 in ireland when we went without rain for weeks new archaeological sites were discovered in the boyne valley near new grange because they became visible from the air.Standing stones might have broken off and there stumps remained in the ground and the soil there dried out at different rates to the surrounding soil making them visible from the air.

[@davepoul8483]

Hi Steve.. the pic at 09:21 is , as you say a hill fort, iron age... what you see are foot paths.. so 3-4 foot wide... you will have to come over and see the place yourself.. the uk is small but perfectly formed :) Davey P. UK

[@Thenotsofamousone]

watching the gardens of my neighbours homes turning burnt brown was something i never thought i would see that summer this one has thanfully been less dry but i was s till worried about seeing a fire in my neighbourhood.

[@johnt8998]

We are so used to getting plenty of rain in this country, it was a big shock when they tell us there are water shortages. I couldn't even wash my car (not all bad news then). 😊

[@newblackdog7827]

1976 was as hot and lasted a lot longer

[@johnt8998]

I know, I remember it well, and I hated every minute of it!@@newblackdog7827

[@Parker_Douglas]

Waters companies are to blame they’re more concerned with profit margins .

[@janescott4574]

One of the things Kings College is famous for is it’s choristers. The annual carol concert is a national institution broadcast every year on Christmas Eve.

[@Aloh-od3ef]

We experience a drought around every 3-4 years! They are not usually serious! We just can’t use our hosepipes to water our garden and parks, during a drought. Which causes the grass and gardens to dry out and turn yellow!!

[@annlane6539]

Hello Steve, you have done it again, taken me back to places I know so well. Yes it does get brown here, more now as I think our summers are getting hotter, but this year it waited until Sept. to get hot. Most of your pics were of Dorset, so beautiful. We climbed up Maiden Castle, no that is not a road up there, it's a foot job! To convert C to F, double it and add 30. When you coming over Steve?

[@cashtimevideo1501]

I live in southern England, and even I was shocked by the differences in those images!! 😧

[@peterjackson4763]

I live in the North West of England. We didn't have a drought here last year. The temperature did not get above 28C. I remember the 1976 drought though.

[@saxon-mt5by]

The Peak District has a large number of reservoirs feeding the surrounding cities such as Manchester, Sheffield and Nottingham. A number of them have sailing clubs and I recall visiting one last year where not only was the slipway dry its whole length, but there was a 30-foot vertical drop at the end before you reached water level!

[@astrecks]

Manchester receives water from the Thirlmere Reservoir in the Lake District; as far as I understand, we get none from the Peak District.

[@reactingtomyroots]

Woah! That's crazy

[@saxon-mt5by]

I believe the reservoirs in the Goyt Valley feed the Stockport area@@astrecks

[@martinmillar7137]

As a kid born in 82 growing up with vivid memories around early 90s to late 90s one thing that sticks in memory was how un mild winters were they were really cold.. frosty tons of snow.. was always a chance of a white Christmas but now its so mild temps are like 16 or so tight up till February then snow seems to hit . (Glasgow btw)

[@jessgunn6639]

i remember the droughts of the 80`s, in my town we cut water supplies over night, so our local nightclub which was opposite the beach only left you use the loo if you took a bucket over the road to the beach and brought back a bucket of water for flushing lmao drought summers do happen it`s just the severity of them has def increased!

[@johnhood3172]

We had a long drought in 1976 I lived in London then and my water was cut off once every day for weeks , it was the driest summer in maybe hundreds of years, mind you I saw an ad on the back of a bus , saying save water in 1974, 1970s summers were all good , I don’t know why , our summers have been crap ever since . Regards JH

[@sharonlock6452]

The drought in 1976 was worse . We had ro get our water from stand pipes in the street

[@irenepaulton3392]

1976 was a very dry year. I always remember it because I got married that year - on the only cloudy day of the entire summer!!

[@nowhere982]

1976 was the only time i remember when we had a glorious long hot summer!!! Week after week after week of unbroken sunshine, went on for months!!! It was great😂😂😂. This year, well, here in Yorkshire its rained for months continuously. Think we've had about 16 sunny (sporadic ) days since last August. We had 2 feet of snow in March all in one day. Its been miserable😢😢😢 . One tree in my garden has grown about 6feet!!

[@martinmillar7137]

Its really quite cool how resilient grass and flowers etc are tbh tiny bit of rain and boom..... so important not just for the landscape but entire eco systems of ants . Bees bugs birds grazing animals the lot

[@StephMcAlea]

I remember a row of houses on tv spontaneously catching fire 😢 The upside was the reduction of greenery showed us more of our prehistoric past than ever.

[@grendel1960a]

a lot of areas had hosepipe bans, where you arent allow to use a hosepipe to wash cars, water your garden or fill your pool, you could water from a watering can, but water conservation was the thing.

[@PedroConejo1939]

I live across the road from Maiden Castle, and the farms are mostly dairy or cereals. Winter and wet weather is damaging to crops on a more frequent basis than drought. That said, we struggled last year. All the Dorset photos were from near here.

[@speedyreedy4878]

We had one in 1976 they put stand pipes in all areas we had to fill buckets to wash everything with including ourselves. 6 months but we had dry summers periods for five years before.we just got on with it.

[@AndrewwarrenAndrew]

Kings college Cambridge has a world famous choir that broadcasts a Carol service on tv every Christmas Eve.

[@RevvedUpBiker]

St Osyth in Essex is one of the driest places in the UK, with just an average of 507 mm per year of rain (19inch).

[@books.reviews.pelhamhardim9758]

Maybe late to this, but doing my O levels in 1976...! As a teenager, once exams were over, a terrific summer.

[@gaynorhead2325]

Last year we had the highest temperature ever recorded in the UK and a hose pipe ban for months during the summer.

[@stevekenilworth]

we have a history of droughts going far back, most modern recent ones, 1906 United Kingdom heat wave which began in August and lasted into September broke numerous records. On September 2 temperatures reached 35.6 °C (96.1 °F), which still holds the September record, however some places beat their local record during September 1911 , 1911 United Kingdom heat wave was one of the most severe periods of heat to hit the country with temperatures around 36 °C (97 °F). The heat began in early July and didn't let up until mid-September where even in September temperatures were still up to 33 °C (91 °F). 1955 United Kingdom heat wave was a period of hot weather that was accompanied by drought. In some places it was the worst drought on record, more severe than 1976 and 1995. 1976 United Kingdom heat wave was one of the hottest in living memory, with temperatures exceeding 32 °C (90 °F) somewhere in the country for over two consecutive weeks. The heatwave was also accompanied by one of the worst droughts in British history, and reservoirs reached historic low levels, go a bit further back 1540 - For eleven months, there was practically no rain, temperatures were five to seven degrees [Celsius] [9-13 °F] above the normal values for the 20th century, in many places summer temperatures must have exceeded 40 °C (104 °F). Many forests in Europe went up in flames, choking smoke darkened the sun, not a single thunderstorm was reported in the summer of 1540. Water was already scarce in May, wells and springs dried up, mills stood still, people starved, livestock was slaughtered. Estimates are that in 1540 half a million people died , half a million dead in 1540 at that time UK population was between 2.3-4 million people from a quick search so half million across Europe is huge. our weather and the jet steam, if we get a locking high / low pressure hanging in wrong place for period time we could get colder or warmer

[@Parker_Douglas]

And we never had climate change back then to worry about but kind of highlights the madness of this green agenda

[@adelwulf8864]

The UK has some messed up weather tbf. I live in the North East, and in April 2012 we had snow with drifts of 2' - 3'. I went to Kent for a weekend, and packed for winter. It was like bloody summer down there, I was sweating the whole time.

[@bobemmerson1580]

Maiden castle is a great place for a scenic walk, about 50 acres of hill fort. A lot of the photos seemed to be from Dorset which is a beautiful county with lots of things to see, dozens of hill forts, Castles like Corfe castle, The Tank Museum, lots of sandy beaches.

[@reactingtomyroots]

Thanks for the info! Sounds beautiful

[@Paul_Wheller_with_an_h]

Someone may have already mentioned this, there is a channel called Trekking Exploration that showed the remains of Derwent Manor reappearing at the bottom of Ladybower reservoir last year as the water level dropped.

[@symons666]

We live in the next county over from Dorset, and I didn't even realiser that we had a drought !! Yes 1984 was hot, when my eldest daugnhter was born, but not a patch on 1976 !!

[@mrsgenehunt48]

Check Lady Bower Reservoir in 2022. Many people explored and shared it. One guy, Ant, made a series of it.

[@reactingtomyroots]

Thanks! Sounds interesting. I'll add to my list

[@mrsgenehunt48]

It really is, the history behind it is fascinating alone but last year during the drought was something else 🤩

[@paulmidsussex3409]

40 Celsius is 104F. We only had it for about 3 days but it was in the 30s for a very long time and it came after a dry winter as well.

[@claudiaphillips7063]

You should look at Cornwall. Our hosepipe ban was only lifted yesterday from last year.

[@bobingabout]

It was dry for months, it was hot (Above 30C) for weeks, and it hit (in some areas went above, in others it didn't quite hit) 40C for 1 day.