After the hottest summer in Britain's history, southern England and Wales were covered by a brown carpet of parched grass. Now, with the return of the rains, the landscapes are gradually regaining their familiar green hue.
According to the Met Office, the summer of 2026 broke every temperature record, and the consequences were especially noticeable in open spaces: parks, meadows and pastures lost their colour, and in places the soil turned to dust.
Darren Share, director of the Royal Parks, recalls how the grass in Hyde Park and other green spaces literally burned up under the unrelenting waves of heat: "In the past, after short spells of heat, rain would quickly set everything right, but this year one heatwave followed another."
In Wales the consequences were even more severe: because of fires and a shortage of feed, farmers were forced to use their winter reserves, while the animals hid under the trees, barely moving from exhaustion. The activist Carolyn Thomas recounts that she saw emaciated cows and sheep, and now, walking through the fields, she notes the return of the greenery, although a full recovery will take time.
Despite the rains, most of the country remains under an official drought status, and groundwater and reservoir levels are still low. The authorities are urging water companies to continue conservation measures. The government has allocated 100 million pounds to combat extreme weather and fires, but experts stress that response measures alone are not enough — systematic work to prevent such phenomena is needed.
Grass has an amazing ability to recover after stress, but that does not change the fact that recurring anomalies are altering the familiar rhythm of nature and of the lives of people who depend on it.
A similar picture is being observed in other European countries. After an abnormally hot and dry summer, the rainy season is finally beginning on the continent. In Germany, France, the Benelux countries and Central Europe, the soil is gradually soaking up moisture, and the scorched meadows and fields are slowly regaining their colour. However, as in Britain, a single season of precipitation will not be enough to fully make up for the water deficit accumulated over months of drought.
