One of Britain's soggiest holiday areas is so enjoying one of its longest dry periods that a local hotel is offering a £100 refund to guests if it rains during their stay.
The Samling hotel in Windermere, Cumbria, has had gauges put on its roof to check for rain, with managers saying they will honour claims even if there is light drizzle.
The move follows the Lake District's driest winter and spring since 1929. Sunshine this week has also attracted lots of tourists to the national park. For the first time in seven years, the ruins of Mardale Green have reappeared at the head of Haweswater, the Manchester reservoir that flooded the village in 1926.
A hosepipe ban is expected next week in many parts of the north-west and staff at the Samling, a Michelin-starred hotel whose guests have included Tom Cruise and David Beckham, believe there will be no rain and are unlikely to have to pay out.
Andrew MacKay, the hotel's general manager, said: "We're convinced that we're going to have a long hot summer in the Lake District. We had some terrible weather last year from floods to heavy snow before the dry spell set in, so I think we are due a bit of fortune."
Usual advice for visitors to the Lake District is to expect rain. Seathwaite, below England's highest mountain, Scafell Pike, has the highest average rainfall in England, and the nearby hamlet of Stonethwaite has an engraved stone plaque saying: "In memory of a sunny day in Borrowdale."
The dry weather has shattered that image. A spokesman for Cumbria Tourism said many lakes in the national park were "at their lowest levels for years after five months of drought".
Bookmakers William Hill is offering evens, or a 50% chance, on the Samling not having to pay out between now and the end of the offer in September.
The drought has prompted water company United Utilities to ask the Environment Agency for permission to take more water from Ennerdale lake, which drains some of England's highest mountains including Pillar, Steeple and Great Gable.
Similar requests may follow for Windermere and Ullswater, whose water levels have already dropped significantly.
The utility company has launched a radio campaign appealing to people to take showers rather than baths.
Rainfall in Keswick in the northern Lake District was only 23mm in May compared with a monthly average of 76mm. In November, when the town and its neighbours Cockermouth and Workington were devastated by floods, there was an exceptional fall of 504mm.
