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Water scarcity report - 21 May 2026

This week’s key changes

• New areas raised to Early Warning this week: Tay, Forth, Esk (Dumfriesshire), Annan, Nith, Dee (Galloway), Outer Hebrides
• Areas with improved water scarcity level: Loch Fyne, Argyll Coastal

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 has been low across most of the country, with some areas, including the Almond, Forth, Tay and Spey, experiencing more normal levels of rainfall.
• River flows – River flows are generally low to very low for the time of year across most of the country.
• Soil moisture – Very dry soils present in parts of Aberdeenshire. Soils are quite dry across southern and eastern Scotland as well as the Outer Hebrides. In contrast, normal soil conditions persist in some western areas.  
• 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. 

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

Weather forecast

Rain will spread north eastwards across all parts on Thursday morning, becoming drier in the afternoon. Further rain will rain spread northeast in the evening. Mainly dry on Friday, rain likely to spread east on Friday night. Then 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 have been low across most of the country. However, in areas of the northeast, including parts of the Moray coast, Speyside, Tay, Almond and some locations in the south, rainfall has been normal. River flows are generally quite low to very low across Scotland.

Rainfall over the past three months has been dry to extremely dry in the east, particularly across Moray, parts of northern Aberdeenshire, East Lothian and the Tweed coastal areas. This is broadly reflected in flows, which have been low to extremely low in parts of the northern Highlands and around the eastern coast. In contrast, a cluster of very high flows is evident across some eastern catchments, particularly from central and southern Aberdeenshire into Angus. Elsewhere, rainfall has typically been normal to very wet, however, some rivers have been 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 quite low to extremely low flows persisted 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 were 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.

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