West-it hasn’t rained significantly in Central and Southern Europe for almost two months, and there is no relief coming at least in the next few days.
A researcher from the European Commission’s Joint Research Center YTK has warned that this year’s drought could be the worst in up to 500 years. They reported on it, for example Euronews and The Guardian.
The drought has had worrying consequences: Several important rivers, such as the Rhine, have dried up to exceptionally low levels.
In addition, the news agency AFP reports that the extent of the destruction caused by wildfires in Europe has already broken the record, even though the forest fire season is still ongoing.
The fire front advanced in a forest area near Hostens in southwestern France on Friday.
The previous ones dubious records have been broken just a few years before: Europe was hit by a rare severe drought in 2018 as well.
At that time, the European Commission’s joint research center YTK could not find a comparison site even from several hundred years ago.
“The drought in 2018 was so extreme that even if you look at [sääilmiöitä] at least 500 years back, there were no other similar events”, YTK senior researcher Andrea Toreti said according to Euronews.
The drying up of the Rhine River was seen as a receding shoreline in Bad Honnef, Germany on August 9.
Houseboats along the Waal estuary of the dried-up Rhine River in Nijmegen, the Netherlands on August 7.
The researcher said that the current year’s drought is still ongoing, so its analysis is still in progress. However, the preliminary assessment is gloomy: According to the researcher, the risk of continued dry conditions in the next three months is “very high”.
“Based on my experience, I think this year is possibly even more extreme than 2018,” Toreti said, according to Euronews.
Drought has significantly lowered the water levels of European rivers.
For example, the German National Hydrological Institute (BfG) announced on Thursday from the lower than usual water levels in the waterways already for the seventh time during August. Only minor improvements are expected in the coming weeks.
For example, the Rhine, which flows through Germany, Italy, Austria, France and the Netherlands, has dried up. The river is widely used for transportation, energy and drinking water production and irrigation.
Read more: Uniper faces new difficulties as Rhine water level continues to fall – Commercial water traffic could end in just a few days
Similarly, the water level of Italy’s longest river Po and France’s Loire has dropped considerably.
A cargo ship runs along the edge of a partially dried up riverbed in Düsseldorf, Germany on August 10.
Drought can also be seen in the extent of forest fires. The European forest fire information system EFFIS started its measurements in 2006, and the destruction caused by fires in 2022 will be the most extensive in the history of measurements.
“Drought and extremely high temperatures have affected the whole of Europe this year and the overall situation in the region is worrying because the wildfire season is still going on”, coordinator of the EFFIS system Jesús San Miguel told AFP.
Read more: “What is here now will be in front of us in 20 years” – Finnish rescuers headed to Greece to fight wildfires
The fires have caused destruction in a total area of 659,541 hectares in Europe. The previous record is from 2017, when the fires destroyed an area of 420,913 hectares by August 13.
People comfort each other at the edge of a forest fire in O Vento, in the Spanish autonomous region of Galicia, on August 5.
Destroy has been seen in Austria, Croatia, France, Greece, Italy and Portugal, among others. Spain has suffered the worst from the fires this year.
San-Miguel also told AFP that since 2010, the spread of fires from southern Mediterranean countries “to countries where there are normally no fires” has been seen.
For example, Slovenia saw the largest wildfire in its modern history last month.
A helicopter dropped water on a smoking forest in western Slovenia near the village of Rence on July 23.
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