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Farmers have warned of the risk of “crops beginning to rot in the ground” as the UK grappled with widespread flooding after rain fell every single day so far this year in parts of the country.
The UK has had an exceptionally wet start to the year with places such as Cardinham in Cornwall and North Wyke in Devon reporting rain every day since New Year’s Eve.
In Reading, where more than 100 global climate scientists met this week, rain has fallen for 32 consecutive days, the longest continuous period in a record going back 100 years. Southern England recorded its sixth wettest January in data that goes back almost 200 years, according to the Met Office.
Scientists say the UK’s weather is becoming more extreme, including more winter rain, because of climate change. Warmer air holds more moisture. Studies will be needed to confirm the extent of the link to global warming in the case of the UK’s recent heavy rain.
The Met Office said the recent rain was caused by a “strong and unusually southerly jet stream”, which had “steered a succession of low-pressure systems” towards the country. Another band of rain is on the way.
The downpours have led to rivers bursting their banks, road closures and farmers warning of potential crop damage, with southern England particularly affected. The Environment Agency urged the public to “remain vigilant”, with almost 90 flood warnings — where flooding is expected — in place on Wednesday.
National Farmers Union president Tom Bradshaw said that, while it was too early to understand the full impact, given many fields have been submerged for two weeks they now faced “a real risk of crops beginning to rot in the ground”.
“We seem to go from one disaster to the other,” said Martin Lines, chief executive of the Nature Friendly Farming Network. “At the moment we are talking about flooding but in a few months we’ll be talking about drought.”
Farming groups said the government needed to invest in water management and work with farmers to manage flooding and drought risk.
Livestock farmers also face the added cost of bringing in animals who are out to pasture. Devon farmer Amy Chapple, of Redwoods Farm on the Somerset border, had to bring inside all 200 of her pigs last week after the rain waterlogged their shelters and the pastures where they feed.
“I’ve got fields that are constantly running with water,” she said.
“Where the pigs were about to have the piglets, the shelters were swimming in water,” she said. “It’s not great in terms of animal welfare. But also the cost of having them inside is so much more. And I still have to pay the rent on my fields I’m not actually using.”
On Wednesday, the Met Office said some “brief respite” from the rain was due on Saturday for many, but warned of a return to wet conditions on Sunday.
Floods minister Emma Hardy said: “With another band of rain on the way I urge residents to follow local advice over the next few days to ensure they stay safe.”
The Environment Agency said about 300 properties have been flooded, mostly in Somerset, Dorset, Devon and Cornwall, while more than 22,000 have been protected by defences.
Despite the “relentless rainfall” some reservoirs were “still below average for the time of year” as they struggled to recover from last year’s drought, said Jess Neumann, a hydrologist at the University of Reading.
According to the Met Office, in the first 10 days of February, Greater London had 80 per cent of expected rain for the entire month. But Thames Water said its reservoirs in the capital were only 88 per cent full, below average for this time of year.
Anglian Water, which serves around 6mn customers in the east of England, said its reservoirs were on average 88 per cent full — around 2 per cent below the norm for this time of year.
However it warned that even though there had been above-average levels of rain in November 2025 and January 2026, this would not overturn the deficit incurred during the dry summer last year. “We can’t rule out that further actions, such as hosepipe bans, won’t be needed in 2026,” the water company said.
Other reservoirs are filling up, including South East Water’s Ardingly Reservoir, which has gone from almost empty to full in just a few months.
Southern Water, which draws just 7 per cent of its water from reservoirs, said its four reservoirs were above average for this time of year. It abstracts most of its water from the aquifer below ground, which is also benefiting from the heavy rain.
Neumann said the “soil moisture, groundwater and river levels are normal to above normal in most locations”, adding that reservoirs should continue filling up in the weeks to come.
While rainfall in the UK is influenced by natural variability, the UK’s winters are getting wetter overall, according to Met Office data. Climate change is expected to result in even wetter winters because a warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture, leading to more intense downpours.
Data visualisation by Steven Bernard and Aditi Bhandari