Britain is in the middle of an unprecedented heat wave. With the temperature consistently rising into the 80 and even the 90s this summer, it’s now officially the driest summer on record since the mid-1930’s.
The scorching weather have led rivers and reservoirs to dip much below their typical water levels.
London’s great River Thames is not immune. For the initial time at least since 1976, the source of the renowned river, near the English community of Ashton Keynes approximately 90 miles west of the city, has dried up.
Michael Sanders, a visitor from Northern England was astonished at what he witnessed when he passed the monument on holiday.
“We began at Thames head at the start of today’s morning, and we haven’t located the Thames yet!” he told the French news agency AFP as he strolled through the bone-dry riverbank.
“As you can see, it has fully dried up all the way. The occasional puddle, the odd muddy piece, no flow anywhere so far.
So perhaps downstream we will find the Thames, but at the moment, it’s gone!”
Months without any major rainfall at all in many regions of the U.K., coupled with July’s record-breaking heat, have taken their toll.
Instead of the lush green meadows and the flowing stream that has for years marked the beginning of the Thames’ 215-mile trip east to the sea, there’s nothing but grey farms and the dried, cracked riverbed.
The Thames is still flowing through London, but its beginning point has altered, dramatically.
“Following the extended dry weather, the source of the Thames in Gloucestershire has dried up, with a feeble flow now only just barely perceptible more than five miles downstream” Dr Rob Collins, head of policy and research at the Rivers Trust, told The Guardian newspaper.
With the weather experts seeing no end in sight to the exceptional heat, and warning that the severe temperatures might become more normal over the summer months, there’s increasing fear that the river may not return to its original source.
And that’s more than just a sentimental worry, since the Thames, as it runs out to sea, supplies fresh water to millions of homes and businesses throughout the most densely populated region of Britain.
Ashton Keynes resident Andrew Jack told the AFP, “We haven’t seen it as dry and as deserted as today, I don’t believe.
He wasn’t as enthusiastic about the shifting weather patterns on the traditionally lush and green isles as some of his fellow Britons.
“Many English people, I believe, are of the opinion, “Actually, terrific, let’s have some European weather!” However, we shouldn’t in reality.
And the fact that we are experiencing such heat and dryness indicates that something has shifted and something has gone wrong.”
“As we see more and more summers like this, I personally worry that things will only become worse and that the U.K. will need to adjust to harsher weather.”