This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: A crack appears beside a window after weeks of scorching weather. As much as you might hope the ground beneath your house will recover with the first rain, the effects of a dry summer can continue long after temperatures fall.
The U.K. is recovering from the hottest summer on record. The drought, however, has not simply disappeared. According to the Environment Agency, southeast England received 61% of its normal September rainfall, leaving its soil moisture deficit around twice the seasonal average.
The financial consequences are staggering. After the U.K.'s 2022 heat wave, insurers recorded 18,000 claims from homeowners in the second half of that year for subsidence (the gradual sinking of the ground surface). In 2025, domestic subsidence payouts reached £307 million, 10% above 2024 figures.
Between April and June 2026, the average paid claim reached £20,000. Although payouts include repair costs, the amount shows the scale of the damage to houses caused by climate change. Clay-rich soils commonly lose water and contract during drought.
If that happens unevenly beneath a foundation, one part of a house may settle further than another, producing cracks in its walls. Trees may intensify local drying as their thirsty roots extract water from the ground. When rain replenishes moisture, some clays swell again, potentially pushing foundations upward.
The recovery, however, is neither complete nor instantaneous. A heavy shower may wet the surface without restoring moisture several meters below ground, and different parts of a building may move at different rates. Cycles of drought and rain can displace salt and sticky clays within sandy soils and clay-like silty soils.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
