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Water scarcity report - 28 August 2025

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

Showery conditions continuing on Friday with some showers grouping to give longer spells of rain and a rumble of thunder, the north and east will see less showers. A bright start on Saturday before a band of rain moves northeast across the country in the afternoon and evening. Turning quite Autumnal on Sunday with blustery showers and strong south westerly winds, further showery conditions likely to start the new week.

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.

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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.

Rainfall over the past month shows mostly dry conditions across the south, east and northeast of Scotland, with some areas showing extremely dry conditions. Meanwhile normal conditions are present across much of the north and northwest although some parts were quite dry to dry. River flows are generally very low in the south and east of the country with some rivers flows extremely low, while north-western areas range from low to high.

Over the last three months, north and west Scotland have mainly experienced normal to very wet conditions. The northeast generally remains quite dry to very dry, with the southeast showing normal to very dry conditions. River flows show an east-west split and are generally very low to extremely low in the east while much of the west of the country shows normal to very high flows. Some rivers are quite low to low in the central belt.

Over the last six months, much of the country has experienced dry to extremely dry rainfall conditions apart from the northwest which shows dry to normal conditions. Across most of the country river flows are extremely low, except in the Outer Hebrides and areas of the west where flows are quite low to normal. Shetland shows high flows.

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. 

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.

Locations in Fife have recorded their lowest levels for July on record. In its 28-year record the Newton of Falkland borehole has only recorded levels this low once before, in July to October 2006, and Scotlandwell recorded its lowest July level in its 27-year record. Boreholes in the Ythan catchment in Aberdeenshire are also close to or at the lowest levels previously seen in July.

Without significant rainfall, groundwater levels are expected to continue to fall over the summer.

July average loch levels are low in the northeast of Scotland with levels elsewhere between normal and very 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