Cameron to discuss farmer drought fears

The subject was raised during Wednesday’s Prime Minister’s Questions session by Conservative MP Therese Coffey. The Suffolk MP said farmers were suffering from drought and requested a meeting on the subject.

Mr Cameron agreed, acknowledging that farmers were facing ‘real issues’ from the lack of rain.

The Met Office has revealed that last month was the warmest April in more than 100 years since records began and was 3 to 5C warmer than is normal for April.

It was also the 11th driest month, with on average half the usual rainfall, creating huge difficulties for many farmers in parts of the UK.

There was significant variation in the amount of rain. While parts of South East England saw less than 10 per cent of normal rainfall, parts of north-west Scotland experienced about 110 per cent of typical rainfall for April, the Met Office said.

The dry April followed a similarly dry March which saw less than half of the normal rainfall falling across the UK.

At a recent NFU council meeting, the union horticultural board chairman Sarah Pettitt warned that growers were facing serious damage to crops, if the dry spell continued. She warned that poor harvests could lead to higher prices  for fruit and vegetables in shops.

A BBC Weather Centre spokesman said, while UK-wide records began in 1910, the central England temperature series goes back to 1659, ‘making it the warmest April here for over 350 years’.

He added: “The reason for the warm spring sunshine has been the persistence of high pressure systems dominating the weather pattern.

“These highs have been anchored across, or just to the east, of the UK. As a result, southeasterly winds have brought the warm air up from the near continent and at times from as far away as the Sahara.

“High pressure acts like a block to the weather pattern. It prevents the more typical westerly winds coming in from the Atlantic Ocean and the associated rain bearing weather fronts.”

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