UNLABELLED: Heatwaves and summer droughts across Europe are likely to intensify under anthropogenic global warming thereby affecting ecological and societal systems. To place modern trends and extremes in the context of past natural variability, annually resolved and absolutely dated climate reconstructions are needed. Here, we present a network of 153 yew (Taxus baccata L.) tree-ring width (TRW) series from 22 sites in southern England that cover the past 310 years. Significant positive correlations were found between TRW chronologies and both April-July precipitation totals (r > 0.7) and July drought indices (r > 0.59) back to 1901 CE (p < 0.05). We used a suite of residual and standard TRW chronologies to reconstruct interannual to multi-decadal spring-summer precipitation and mid-summer drought variability over western Europe, respectively. Our yew hydroclimate reconstructions capture the majority of reported summer droughts and pluvials back to 1710 CE. Clusters of severe drought spells occurred in the second half of the 18th and mid-twentieth century. Our study suggests that the frequency and intensity of recent hydroclimate extremes over western Europe are likely still within the range of past natural variability. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00382-025-07601-2.

Czech Globe Global Change Research Institute Czech Academy of Sciences 60300 Brno Czech Republic

Department of Geography Faculty of Science Masaryk University 61137 Brno Czech Republic

Department of Geography Johannes Gutenberg University 55099 Mainz Germany

Department of Geography University of Cambridge Cambridge CB2 3EN UK

Department of History Stockholm University Stockholm Sweden

Institute for the Environment Brunel University London WC1H 0DG UK

Institute of Geoecology and Geoinformation Adam Mickiewicz University B Krygowskiego 10 61 680 Poznan Poland

Laboratory of Tree Ring Research University of Arizona 1215 E Lowell Street AZ 85721 Tucson USA

Siberian Federal University Krasnoyarsk 660041 Russian Federation

Tree Ring Services Oakraven Field Centre Mitcheldean Gloucestershire GL17 0EE UK

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