Understanding drought starts with access to the right information

The resources you will find on this page will provide easy access to key datasets, forecasts, guidance and monitoring tools from across the Water Resources West region. It has been developed to help organisations and stakeholders understand drought conditions, assess risks and make informed decisions.

Whether planning ahead, responding to drought as conditions develop, or supporting recovery afterwards, this hub provides the information needed to improve preparedness, resilience and decision-making at every stage of the drought cycle.

Droughts bring a lot of challenges but there are steps you can take at each stage of a drought so you can prepare. To help those in the Water Resources West region navigate drought, we have pulled together some useful information and links to data that will help you before, during and after these severe weather events.

Data to help you before, during and after a drought

Water availability, reports, and data

Understanding historical and current river flows, river levels, and groundwater levels can help with planning before and during a drought and it can help you understand trends after a drought.

This data from the Environment Agency has been taken from open stations throughout England. You can also find information on water quality from open and historic sites by following this link - Hydrology Data Explorer - Explore​

You can also find out further hydrological information about river flows, rainfall soil moisture including graphs at UK Water Resources Portal’s​

You can find more information about soil wetness status and also Volumetric water content from COSMOS-UK’s Soil Moisture data.

​The following resources provide information for the water levels of reservoir storage for Severn Trent, United utilities and Dwy Cymru/Welsh Water. ​

This resource contains data for river, sea, groundwater and rainfall levels. ​

The Environment Agency’s Water Data Explorer site publishes a wealth of data which can be accessed by all.

Rainfall and river flow: weekly reports for England - Weekly reports on rainfall and river flow in England for the last three months.

Weather and climate

Following weather and climate trends are an important part of planning and navigating through a drought, the data sources below can help with this:

Additional data and reports

Get the most up to date government water situation reports, these are updated monthly and weekly Water Situation reports

You can find data for physical and ecological factors related to drought Environmental monitoring

We would like to hear from you!

Information plays a vital role in managing drought in the future.  If you have any local information about drought in your area please do let us know by completing the form below.