A spring without rain: Northern Europe faces exceptional early drought
After endless flooding, drought has arrived. Throughout the winter of 2024, catastrophic floods struck the Audomarois and the Aa river delta in the Pas-de-Calais department in northern France. A year later, it is now water scarcity that has hit the region. On Wednesday, May 21, the Pas-de-Calais prefecture imposed water-use restrictions in the same area, the latest of about 10 similar orders implemented since mid-May in the Hauts-de-France region of northern France. According to local authorities, water resources in several river basins have reached a "critical threshold."
The concern has spread: On Wednesday, the Manche department in Normandy was also placed on alert, and the following day, Meurthe-et-Moselle in northeastern France implemented the same measure. This early drought has deeply worried farmers. But it is not limited to northern France: Drought has affected much of the continent.
"Northern Europe is now experiencing a drought that is surprising in both its duration and extent," explained Simon Mittelberger, a climatologist at Météo-France (the French national meteorological service). "Belgium, the Netherlands, northern Germany, Denmark, Poland and the United Kingdom are among the hardest hit." In Hauts-de-France, only 69 millimeters of rain fell between early February and the end of April, the lowest precipitation for that period since 1959, according to Météo-France. "To put it in perspective," said Mittelberger, "that's the amount that usually falls in January alone."
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