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Water scarcity report - 09 July 2026

This week’s key changes

• New areas raised to Significant: The River Lossie (Findhorn)
• New areas raised to Alert: Esk
• New areas raised to Early Warning: Tay and Earn
• New temporary restrictions on licences: SEPA have issued temporary restrictions on some licences to abstract water from the environment in the River Lossie area that has now reached Significant Scarcity. For further information see Significant water scarcity guidance | Beta | SEPA | Scottish Environment Protection Agency.

Map and water scarcity levels

Use the drought risk assessment tool to explore conditions through our interactive map. This tool shows the number of days that river flows have been very low and is used to help identify areas at greater risk of long-term ecological impacts. When river flows have been very low for 30 or more days, Significant Scarcity is reached. Data is updated daily at 0930 GMT / 1030 BST.

Conditions overview

• Rainfall - Recent rainfall in western areas has been high while the east and parts of Moray have been quite dry. In the long term, conditions have been drier in eastern coastal areas and wetter in the west. Winter rainfall in the Findhorn catchment was 65% of the long term average, with February only seeing 43% of the long term average. 
• River flows - River flows are generally very low in the east of Scotland, whereas in western areas flows are very high for the time of year. Over the longer-term, conditions in the east have been very low, while in western areas river flows have been more mixed. River flows have been exceptionally low for the time of year on the Lossie at Sheriffmills, with the Lossie seeing the second highest number of June low flow days in its 63 year record. The start of July also saw the lowest flows in the river since 2003.
• Soil/ground conditions - Ground conditions have generally remained dry across the east, while some areas in the east and northeast remain very dry. There is no soil moisture deficit across the rest of the country.
• Groundwater and loch levels - Groundwater levels in central Fife are very low for the time of year. Elsewhere in the East of Scotland groundwater levels are low or very low. In all other areas levels remain normal or above.

Read in more detail our hydrological overview of the current conditions below.

Weather forecast

• Patchy rain moving southeast on Friday with a chance of some heavier showers breaking out later Friday or Friday night. A little light rain at first in east on Saturday otherwise the weekend will be dry. © Crown copyright [2026], Met Office

Advice for water users

Everyone should plan to increase their resilience to the impacts of prolonged dry conditions. By taking the right steps now, it could help reduce the impact of water scarcity in the future. For further information visit Advice for abstractors and irrigators

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Supporting information

This section goes into more detail on the data behind the water scarcity levels.

Rainfall and river flows

These maps show rainfall and river flows relative to the long-term average, for this time of year, over 1 month, 3 months, and 6 months.

Recent rainfall conditions across most of Scotland have been normal. In the northwest conditions have been wet to very wet, whereas parts of the east coast have been quite dry to dry. River flows in the west have been very high recently, while flows in the east have generally been low to very low. In the Tay and parts of central Scotland, river flows have been normal.

Over the past three months, rainfall conditions have been dry along the Moray Coast, and very dry around the Firth of Tay and parts of East Lothian. Normal to dry conditions can be seen across the rest of eastern Scotland and around the central belt. Western and southern Scotland have been wet to very wet. River flows in the east have been largely very low, and low to normal across central Scotland. In the west and south of the country the flows have been high to very high.

Over the past six months, rainfall conditions along the Moray coast and across the central belt have been dry to very dry. In the northeast, Northern Isles and parts of the south, conditions have been wet to very wet. Normal rainfall conditions have occurred elsewhere. River flows have been very low to extremely low in the central belt and parts of the north, and very high in the northeast and southwest. Elsewhere, river flows have ranged from quite low to normal.

What do the map colours mean?

Rainfall	Extremely dry	Very dry	Dry	Quite dry	Normal Conditions	Wet	Very wet
River flow	Extremely low	Very low	Low	Quite low	Normal Conditions	High	Very high
	Red	Orange	Light orange	Yellow	Green	Light blue	Dark blue

Soil moisture deficit

Natural water storage – groundwater and loch levels

In each river catchment there is some degree of natural water storage, which can maintain river flows even when it is not raining. This natural water storage is mainly held in lochs and groundwater. When storage has been depleted it will take a lot of rainfall for levels to recover.

The maps below show recent groundwater and loch level compared to the long-term record at each individual station. Level is reported as high or low compared to the typical (‘normal’) level range for the time of year.

Level ranges are specific to each station and based on the long-term (minimum 10 years) record of mean monthly level values recorded at individual stations. 

Recorded groundwater levels in central Fife are very low for the time of year. In the 30 year monitoring record at the Newton of Falkland borehole June levels have only been lower twice before (2025 and 2006).

Elsewhere in the East of Scotland groundwater levels are low or very low. In all other areas levels remain normal or above.

Loch levels show a mixed picture, with most sites normal to very high levels. However, Lochindorb has very low levels.

What do the map colours mean?

Very high	High	Normal range	Low	Very low
Dark blue	Light blue	Light green	Light orange	Dark orange

Flow, rainfall and groundwater data are accessed via SEPA's time series data service (API). SEPA's live data are subject to ongoing quality control and periodic review.

Scottish Water are responsible for public water supply and distribution in Scotland. Scottish Water reports on the raw water stored in these supplies.

Report copyright

• Current water scarcity levels - © SEPA. Some features of this information are based on digital spatial data licensed from the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology © NERC (CEH). Contains OS data © Crown copyright (and database right).
• Areas of significant water scarcity - OS Data - © Crown Copyright - SEPA licence number 100016991 (2022)
• Rainfall, river flow, groundwater and loch levels - Base map © OpenStreetMap contributors.
• Soil moisture deficit - Data based on MORECS (Met Office © Crown Copyright). Some features of this information are based on digital spatial data licensed from the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology © NERC (CEH). Contains OS data © Crown copyright (and database right). Base map © OpenStreetMap contributors.
• Weather forecast  - Crown copyright [2022], Met Office