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Water scarcity report - 14 May 2026

This week’s key changes

• New areas raised to Alert this week: Ythan
• New areas raised to Early Warning this week: Wick, Helmsdale, Ness, Dee (Aberdeen), Earn, Firth of Forth, Cree, Doon, Irvine and Ayr, Clyde and Orkney.

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 - Rainfall in March was particularly low in parts of northern Aberdeenshire, with less than half of the monthly average, leading to conditions drying out. This was followed by a more typical April but May has so far seen little significant rainfall in the area. Elsewhere, recent rainfall has been normal across much of the south and west, but drier across the north, east and parts of the central Scotland.
• River flows – River flows are generally low for the time of year across the north, east and parts of central Scotland, with more normal flows in the west.
• Soil moisture – Soils are quite dry across most of the country and very dry in parts of Aberdeenshire.
• Groundwater levels – Groundwater levels are largely normal across much of the country, although there are very low levels at some monitoring locations in Fife and Angus.
• How does this compare to 2025? The wet winter in the east has improved water resource conditions compared to mid-May 2025, when many areas had already reached Moderate for water scarcity.

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

Weather forecast

Frequent heavy showers, risk of hail and thunder through Thursday, showers easing across southern parts for a time overnight and then western parts later Thursday. Showers in the north and east on Friday gradually dying out, otherwise dry. Mainly dry through much of Saturday but outbreaks of mainly light rain in the west later and spreading across Scotland on Sunday, clearing to just a few a few showers in the west in the afternoon.

 © 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 have been normal across much of the south and west, however in the north, east and across much of Lanarkshire and the Lothians, conditions have been quite dry to dry. River flows are generally quite low to very low across much of the east, with overall normal to high flows in the west. 

Rainfall over the past three months has been dry to extremely dry in the northeast, particularly across Moray and parts of northern Aberdeenshire. This is broadly reflected in flows, which have been low to extremely low in parts of the northern Highlands. In contrast, a cluster of very high flows is evident across some eastern catchments, particularly from central and southern Aberdeenshire into Angus and Fife. Elsewhere, rainfall has typically been normal to very wet, however, some rivers are quite low to low in the central belt. 

Over the past six months, much of the east of the country has experienced normal to very wet conditions. This is in contrast to the quite dry to very dry conditions along the Moray coast and further north. This is reflected in the river flows in these areas, with normal to very high flows across much of eastern Scotland, while low to extremely low flows persist further north. Elsewhere, conditions have been mostly normal to wet, with localised areas of quite dry to very dry rainfall conditions in parts of central and western Scotland. River flows in the south are mixed, generally ranging from very high to low.

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. The maps are updated on the first full week of the month. 

Following winter recharge, levels have begun to fall across the country. In the north-east the sustained heavy rainfall in January and February meant that groundwater levels recovered from the lowest levels on record during 2025 to close to the highest in February 2026 at some locations. Levels in Aberdeenshire are now within the normal range for April. However, low to very low levels for the time of year are seen at locations in Fife and Angus where the winter rainfall was not as extreme.

Groundwater levels in the south-west of the country are normal to high for the time of year and levels in the north of the country are normal for the time of the year.

April average loch levels range between normal and very high across Scotland.

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