August 13, 2026
Want to know what your cider will taste like next year? Watch the weather now. From heat-shrunk apples in England and Germany to freeze-damaged orchards and wildfire threats in North America, the 2026 growing season is already shaping what cider makers will have to work with.
For cider drinkers, the connection starts with the apple. Hot, dry conditions can leave fruit smaller while concentrating sugars. Higher sugar at harvest means higher potential alcohol after fermentation, while smaller apples can mean less juice coming off the press. The same conditions can influence acidity, tannin, aroma and ultimately the choices cider makers make when they begin blending.
And 2026 is not delivering the same story everywhere.
Right now, England is the place to watch.
Extreme Heat Hits England’s Cider Country
England’s cider makers are watching the skies as prolonged heat and drought threaten to sharply reduce the 2026 cider apple harvest in some of the country’s most important growing regions.
The pressure intensified again Thursday, August 13, with an Extreme Heat warning in effect for Herefordshire and temperatures forecast to peak around 37°C (99°F), with 38°C (100°F) possible in parts of the region.
Months of hot, dry weather have helped build sugar in the fruit, but a lack of rainfall across Somerset and Herefordshire has left many cider apples substantially smaller than usual.
Smaller fruit means less juice at pressing, and for some growers the impact could be significant.
Somerset cider producer Showerings expects to harvest around 1,000 tonnes this year, according to The Times. That would be a dramatic reversal from 2025, when the producer reported harvesting more than 2,700 tonnes of Dabinett apples following a particularly strong growing season.
Orchard director Nick Showering told The Times that the company, whose history stretches back 180 years, has not experienced conditions quite like this. Some early-dropping varieties may already be beyond recovery, while later apples such as Dabinett could still benefit if substantial rain arrives soon.
Smaller Apples, Concentrated Flavors
A smaller crop does not necessarily mean less interesting cider.
Mark Hopper, public affairs director for the National Association of Cider Makers, told The Times that growers are seeing considerable variation between orchards and apple varieties. Some fruit may be smaller but carry higher sugar levels and concentrated flavor.
The association is not yet describing the situation as an industry-wide crop crisis.
For cider makers, however, the chemistry matters.
Fruit arriving at the press with elevated sugar levels carries greater potential alcohol. If those sugars are fermented dry, that could translate into higher-ABV cider. Concentrated fruit may also deliver more intense flavors, while reduced juice yields could leave makers with less cider-specific fruit available for blending.
There may finally be some relief ahead. Temperatures are expected to fall significantly after Thursday’s extreme heat, with opportunities for showers appearing in the forecast during the coming week.
For later-ripening cider varieties, the timing matters. Rain now could still help apples size before harvest. It cannot necessarily reverse damage already done to earlier fruit.
Germany Is Waiting for Rain, Too
The similarities extend across the English Channel.
The Association of the German Fruit Juice Industry (VdF) expects around 450,000 metric tons of fruit from Germany’s traditional orchards in 2026, but says whether the crop reaches that level will depend heavily on rainfall in the coming weeks.
The apples are there, but many remain small. The VdF says even an additional centimeter in fruit diameter could significantly increase the overall harvest. Without enough rain, there is also a risk of premature fruit drop.
That warning echoes what 1785 Cider has been seeing in southern Germany this summer.
Cider maker Patrick Mann reported drought and heat putting pressure on his rain-fed orchard, with trees dropping fruitlets as they conserve moisture. Cider Chat documented those conditions in its July 2026 Around the World’s Orchards report.
What Mann was seeing on the ground in July now looks increasingly familiar: apples on the trees, but insufficient water to size the fruit before harvest.
Across the Atlantic, a Different Orchard Story
North America provides an important counterpoint. Extreme weather is affecting fruit-growing regions there as well, but drought is not the only story.
In British Columbia’s Okanagan region, the Bald Range wildfire has become a human disaster first and foremost.
An 80-year-old woman died while evacuating the fire, more than 20,000 people were forced from their homes, and British Columbia declared a provincial state of emergency as more than 100 wildfires burned across the province. Homes and other structures have also been lost.
Hot and dry conditions have helped fuel the fires.
The Okanagan is also one of Canada’s important fruit-growing regions, meaning the disaster is disrupting agriculture alongside communities. Fruit growers have been among those forced to leave farms and orchards during harvest.
At this point, eCiderNews has not found evidence of widespread losses specifically to cider apple orchards from the Bald Range fire, so it would be premature to draw conclusions about the fire’s effect on cider production.
The situation does, however, demonstrate how extreme weather can affect an orchard crop even when fruit survives on the tree. Growers still need to be able to reach it, harvest it and get it to market or the press.
In the U.S., the Damage Started in Spring
For some American orchards, the defining weather event of 2026 happened months before summer heat arrived.
Warm spring weather accelerated fruit development before damaging April freezes struck parts of the eastern United States.
The effects were serious enough that the USDA Farm Service Agency designated numerous New York counties as primary natural-disaster areas following frost and freezing temperatures from April 19 through April 21. Contiguous affected areas extended into Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont.
The damage was not uniform, however.
In the Hudson Valley, reporting in May documented apple orchards assessing losses after early warmth pushed buds forward before the freeze arrived. At the same time, the larger U.S. apple picture remains unsettled as harvest approaches.
A clearer national view should emerge when USApple releases its 2026 crop forecast later in August, providing an important benchmark for how weather has affected production across the country’s major apple-growing regions.
Ontario Shows the Other Side of 2026
Cross the border into Ontario and the weather story changes again.
The Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Agribusiness’ ONfruit crop report on August 7 reported that apples were continuing to size and that growers in most areas were hoping recent rain would provide another push in fruit size as harvest approaches.
Its July 24 update had already reported good fruit sizing across most regions despite potentially lighter crop loads, with significant rainfall affecting growth in some areas.
That makes Ontario an important reminder that 2026 is not one global story of drought and crop failure.
It is a season of extremes.
Why This Matters for Ciderville
For cider drinkers, orchard weather eventually becomes something you can taste.
For cider makers, these reports are much more than weather news.
Fruit size affects juice yield. Drought can concentrate sugars and flavors while reducing the amount of juice available at pressing. Spring freezes can remove fruit before the growing season has really begun. Excessive rainfall creates a different set of orchard challenges, while wildfire can disrupt harvest even when the fruit itself survives.
Those effects travel beyond the orchard.
A smaller crop can affect the availability and price of cider-specific fruit. It can change what varieties makers have available for blending. Higher sugar levels can increase potential alcohol. Different balances of sugar, acid and tannin can influence fermentation and ultimately the character of the finished cider.
In other words, the weather happening now can help determine what is poured into your glass months or even years from now.
For England and Germany, the immediate question is whether meaningful rain will arrive soon enough to help later-ripening cider apples.
Across North America, growers are dealing with a very different patchwork of conditions, from freeze damage and wildfire risk to regions where timely rain is helping fruit size.
Orchards Have Always Had Good Years and Bad
There is also reason to keep this season in perspective.
Orcharding has never been a predictable, year-after-year business. Apple trees can produce heavily one season and lightly the next. A late frost can affect one orchard while leaving another nearby untouched. Rainfall, bloom, pollination, pests and the timing of harvest all contribute to the natural ups and downs that growers have worked with for generations.
Orchardists expect good years and difficult years. That variability is part of growing fruit.
What deserves attention is when weather moves beyond those familiar swings: prolonged drought, unusually intense heat, damaging freezes following early warmth, or multiple extremes occurring during the same growing season.
Even then, a difficult year does not automatically mean a bad cider year. Smaller fruit can bring concentrated flavors. A lighter crop can allow the fruit that remains to develop differently. Later varieties can still respond to timely rain. And experienced growers and cider makers have spent generations adapting to what each harvest gives them.
That uncertainty is part of cider.
There is no single global apple harvest story in 2026, and there is still a lot of growing season left before many of these apples reach the press.
There is no single global apple harvest story in 2026.
But taken together, these orchard reports offer an early look at the fruit that will become the ciders we drink in 2027 and beyond.
Cider begins in the orchard. What happens there now will eventually reach the glass.
About eCiderNews™
eCiderNews™, published by Cider Chat®, delivers independent reporting, industry insights, and global cider stories for the people who grow, make, sell, serve, and enjoy cider.
Stay Connected
🍎 Subscribe to the eCiderNews newsletter for the latest cider news and analysis.
🎙️ Listen to the Cider Chat podcast for conversations with cider makers, orchardists, and industry leaders.
📬 Story tips: news@ciderchat.com
🌍 Because cider deserves its own newsroom.
You must be logged in to post a comment.