When will it rain next in the West Country?

As the West Country basks in seemingly unending hot weather, an increasing number of us are asking the question "when will it rain?"

The Met Office is barely forecasting any cloud in the region, let alone showers, through till Monday.

And other parts of the UK have now gone almost a month without any significant rain.

So, when will it rain? And, as the gardeners among us will be wondering, are there hosepipe bans on the way?

With high pressure dominating UK weather until next week, there's no meaningful rainfall expected this week – and some forecasts predict no wet weather even beyond that.

There could be a few showers at times bumping into the south coast, but even if they do, they are unlikely to reach many parts of the West.

Parts of Devon and Cornwall including Plymouth, Bude and Falmouth could have some rain this week, as could isolated areas near Chard, Yeovil and Taunton on Thursday.

Nothing at all is expected further north, however, including towards Bristol, Bath, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire.

Historically, the West tends to fare better during prolonged hot weather than other parts of the country.

Across England, more than eight million households are under hosepipe bans, but in our region only Mid Devon has one in force.

South West Water introduced one covering South Molton, Axminster and Honiton at 12:00 BST on Tuesday.

Wessex Water, which covers Somerset and parts of West Wiltshire, said there was currently "no prospect" of a ban.

Severn Trent also does not currently have one in force, but a spokesperson for the company, which supplies water in Gloucester and Cheltenham, told the BBC it is experiencing its "highest demand ever".

"This means demand could outstrip supply as it takes 12 hours for water supplies to replenish," the spokesperson said.

Sara Thornton, senior weather presenter at BBC West, said: "Experts have called this the year of the Weather Whiplash, with periods of extremely wet weather, followed by extended dry spells."

Thornton continued: "The West had a wet winter, with up to 150% of average rainfall in some parts of the region.

"But spring changed all that, and we saw just half of the normally expected rainfall in some places.

"That meant farmers had to irrigate their spring crops earlier than normal, and three successive heatwaves have also driven a spike in water demand."

In the past four weeks, most areas of the West have had less than 10mm of rain, she said.

The only exceptions were the parts of Bristol and Somerset hit by heat-induced thunderstorms at the end of June.

"After all that dry weather, it's no wonder that people are looking to the heavens wondering when the next rains will fall," she said.