An appraisal of the severity of the 2022 drought and its impacts

The summer of 2022 was particularly notable for the prolonged and extensive hot and dry conditions experienced across the UK. The resultant 2022 drought had widespread impacts and prompted much discussion about the continuing vulnerability of the UK to drought, particularly in the context of anthropogenic warming. Here, we briefly describe the evolution of the drought before focusing on the severity of rainfall, river flow, soil moisture and groundwater level deficits from summer 2022, placing the event into a historical context and addressing the impacts of the drought. We also consider whether the 2022 drought is part of a long-term trend towards increasing drought severity. The summer of 2022 saw record-breaking temperatures, but was also exceptionally dry, leading to drought impacts in many parts of the UK. Here, we provide an overview of the drought, before going on to quantify its severity in a historical context and to characterise the drought's impacts. We conclude that the drought was exceptional - ranking among the most severe events of the last 50 years - but not as exceptional as the totemic 1976 event. It is difficult to conclusively detect trends in drought severity but 2022 is certainly a harbinger of the arid, summer half-year droughts we will see more of in a warming world.image