Water scarcity report - 25 September 2025
Orkney has been raised to Significant Water Scarcity.
The Findhorn (East) has recovered from Significant Water Scarcity.
The River Avon, Lower Spey, Deveron, Ythan, South Ugie Water, Upper and Lower Don (Aberdeenshire) remain at Significant Water Scarcity.
The rest of the Spey and Findhorn, as well as the Firth of Tay, Tyne (Lothian) and Thurso remain at Moderate Water Scarcity.
The Dee (Aberdeen) and Esk (Angus) have recovered to Alert, joining Wick, Helmsdale, Conon, Firth of Forth, Almond, Tweed and Shetland.
The Shin, Ness and Earn remain at Early Warning.
The rest of the country remains at Normal conditions.
Situation summary
Due to continued low flows, the River Avon, Lower Spey, Deveron, Ythan, South Ugie Water, and the Upper and Lower Don (Aberdeenshire) catchments remain at Significant Water Scarcity. Most of these areas have now experienced Significant Water Scarcity for two months.
Orkney has also continued to experience low rainfall, and extremely low river flows have persisted. As a result, this week Orkney has also been raised to Significant Water Scarcity level.
Heavy rainfall further south however has led to some recovery in the Findhorn (East) catchment, and it now joins the rest of the Findhorn at Moderate Scarcity.
SEPA have issued temporary restrictions on some licences to abstract water from the environment in the areas that have reached significant water scarcity. For further information visit Significant water scarcity guidance | Beta | SEPA | Scottish Environment Protection Agency.
The rest of the Spey remains at Moderate Scarcity, as well as the Firth of Tay, Tyne (Lothian) and Thurso. Meanwhile, the Dee (Aberdeen) and Esk (Angus) have recovered to Alert, joining Wick, Helmsdale, Conon, Firth of Forth, Almond, Tweed and Shetland.
The Shin, Ness and Earn remain at Early Warning while the rest of the country is at Normal conditions.
What do the map colours mean?
| Normal conditions | Early warning | Alert | Moderate scarcity | Significant scarcity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blue | Green | Yellow | Orange | Red |
Water scarcity area descriptions
Weather Forecast
Dry Thursday with patchy light rain or drizzle over the high ground in the northeast on Friday. A band of locally heavy rain pushes east through Saturday to clear north-eastern parts later Sunday when a few showers move into the west. Further light rain or showers in the west Monday.
Advice for water users
We advise water users, including those with private water supplies, to be aware of the potential risk of water scarcity this summer, and for businesses to plan ahead where possible. Advice for abstractors and irrigators.
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.
Much of the country shows normal conditions for the 30-day average rainfall, with wet conditions in parts of southern Scotland. In Shetland, the north and northeast however, conditions remain quite dry to extremely dry. River flows in the north, east and central areas are generally low to extremely low, while in the west flows are largely normal to high.
Rainfall conditions over the last three months have generally been quite dry to extremely dry across much of the north, northeast and central areas. Conditions are more mixed in the south of the country, with dry to normal conditions while in western areas, conditions are largely dry to wet. River flows display an east-west split, with low to extremely low flows in much of the east and normal to very high flows in the west.
Over the last six months, the east of Scotland has been mainly dry to very dry, with extremely dry conditions prevalent in the northeast. Much of the rest of the country has been normal, with western Scotland seeing wet to very wet conditions. River flows across the east of the country have generally been extremely low while river flows in central Scotland have been very low. River flows are more mixed in the west and southwest, ranging from low to high.
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
This map shows this week’s soil moisture deficit. This is obtained from the Met Office Rainfall and Evaporation Calculation System (MORECS). The Deveron has extremely dry ground conditions. Ground conditions across the rest of the north and east of the country are generally quite dry to very dry, while western Scotland has no soil moisture deficit.
What do the map colours mean?
| Extremely dry | Very dry | Dry | Quite dry | No deficit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Red | Orange | Light orange | Yellow | Green |
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.
Despite the recent rainfall, due to the lack of recharge over the autumn and winter, groundwater levels across most of the country remain low to very low for the time of year.
A number of locations in Fife and Angus, and the Ythan catchment in Aberdeenshire, have recorded their lowest levels for August on record. In addition, Newton of Falkland in Fife and Murton Nature Reserve in Angus have recorded their lowest ever levels in their 28-year and 17-year records respectively.
Without significant rainfall, groundwater levels are expected to continue to fall over the autumn.
August average loch levels are low in the northeast of Scotland with levels elsewhere between normal and high.
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