The Environment Agency declared drought across seven regions covering 51.4 per cent of England after weeks of exceptionally dry weather combined with the UK's fourth widespread heatwave of the summer. Nationally, July rainfall reached just 7 per cent of the long-term average following what the agency described as the driest July on record. Helen Wakeham, the Environment Agency's director of water and chair of the National Drought Group, said the hot, dry weather meant England was using water faster than nature could replenish it. The lack of rainfall has significantly reduced water supplies across England. The dry conditions have also increased wildfire risk, with more than 110 wildfires recorded at protected conservation sites across England this year.