{
  "id": 6754682,
  "title": "Weatherwatch: soil moisture deficit – how dry are the UK’s thirsty soils?",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/11/weatherwatch-soil-moisture-deficit-how-dry-are-the-uks-thirsty-soils",
  "topic": "science",
  "section": "Science",
  "published": "2026-09-11T05:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Guardian Science",
    "slug": "guardian-science",
    "url": "https://www.theguardian.com/news/2026/sep/11/weatherwatch-soil-moisture-deficit-dry-uk-thirsty-soils-drought"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": null,
  "summary": "SMD is the moisture the soil must make up until it is at capacity, with very dry conditions over most of England and Wales When the ground is thoroughly wet, after excess rainwater has run off it is said to be at field capacity. Meteorologists describe drought in terms of soil moisture deficit (SMD) from field capacity. The SMD is a measure of how thirsty the soil is, expressed as how many…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}