According to an expert report, almost half of Europe is threatened by drought. According to a report by the European Drought Observatory, as of August 10, 47 percent of Europe’s territory had drought warnings.
In addition, the condition is already alarming on 17 percent of the area. The drought has had a severe negative impact on summer crop harvests, with corn, soybeans and sunflowers being hit the hardest. The European Drought Observatory is an institution of the European Commission.
The report, released Monday, said the severe drought that has affected many regions of Europe since the beginning of the year has continued to spread and worsened since early August. It is related to a persistent lack of rainfall combined with a series of heat waves since May.
This also affects the flow of rivers. The lower volume of water stored also has severe impacts on the energy sector, both for hydroelectric power generation and for power plant cooling systems.
In particular, the risk of drought has increased in Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Romania, Hungary, northern Serbia, Ukraine, Moldova, Ireland and the United Kingdom.
Conditions have deteriorated the most in regions that were already affected by the drought in spring 2022, such as northern Italy, south-eastern France and some areas in Hungary and Romania. In the western Euro-Mediterranean region in particular, November is likely to be warmer and drier than usual.
