EU report: Drought-hit Europe could face 3 more dry months

BRUSSELS (AP) — Parts of the European Union could face three more months of warmer, drier conditions as Europe grapples with a major drought that has fueled wildfires, dried up rivers and devastated crops, the bloc’s Earth observation program warns. 27 nations in one report.

“Warmer and drier than usual conditions are likely in the western Euro-Mediterranean region in the coming months to November 2022,” especially in Spain and Portugal, the EU’s Copernicus program said in a statement. August report.

Nearly half of the 27 EU nations are under a drought warning, with conditions worsening in Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania and Spain. The report also noted rising drought dangers outside the EU, in Britain, Serbia, Ukraine and Moldova.

Copernicus said a lack of rain and a sequence of heat waves since May have led to dry conditions and lower river levels. That, in turn, has affected the energy sector, depriving hydroelectric and other power plants of their main source of energy and coolant.

Water scarcity and heat stress are also reducing the yield of European crops, with maize, soybeans and sunflowers being the most affected. Recent rains in August have helped some regions, but crops in other areas have been hit by thunderstorms.

The report comes amid what experts say could be the continent’s worst drought in 500 years. Little significant rain has been recorded for almost two months, but Europe is not alone. Drought conditions are also reported in eastern Africa, the western United States, and northern Mexico.

The weather is exacerbating conditions as higher temperatures accelerate evaporation, thirsty plants absorb more moisture, and reduced winter snowfall limits the freshwater supply available for summer irrigation.

In Italy, authorities managing the northern Po River have put the country’s longest waterway on the highest level of drought alert. The dry conditions have already caused billions of euros in losses to farmers who rely on it to irrigate fields and paddy fields.

More than 100 municipalities in France have water supply problems and drinking water is delivered by truck. More than 60 French departments are at the highest level of “crisis” drought warning. Supplies in the Spanish regions of Andalusia and Extremadura are less than a third of normal, according to the report.

Low water levels in the river Rhine have prompted Germany’s main industry lobby group to warn that factories may have to cut production or stop it altogether. The plummeting water levels of the river are also affecting the transport of coal and oil in the Netherlands.

The Danube, Europe’s second longest river, stretching from Germany’s Black Forest to the Black Sea in eastern Romania, has dropped to one of the lowest levels recorded in the last century.

SHARE: