4 days ago
More than 40% of Europe is facing drought, latest update shows
More than 40 per cent of Europe is currently facing some form of drought, the latest official update reveals.
Pockets of south-eastern Spain, Cyprus, Greece, and areas across the south-eastern Balkans are under the highest form of 'alert' according to the European Drought Observatory (EDO)'s report for 11-20 May.
But a drought 'warning' is also in place across large swathes of northern and eastern Europe, following a record-breaking hot and dry spring, driven by climate change.
March was Europe's warmest on record, and some countries saw their driest March, Europe's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) previously reported.
In total, 1.6 per cent of the 27 EU countries (excluding Madeira, Azores, and Canary Islands) plus the UK is in alert conditions. As per the EDO's classification, this means that vegetation is showing signs of stress, as well as the soil lacking moisture - which places an area under a warning - and less than normal rainfall.
The situation is particularly acute in some Mediterranean areas favoured by holidaymakers, such as the Greek islands of Santorini and Mykonos. Here, water is having to be shipped in from Athens or filtered by desalination plants to fill swimming pools and showers.
Overtourism is being blamed for exacerbating the issue. "The tourist sector is unsustainable and there is no planning,' Nikitas Mylopoulos, professor of water resource management at Thessaly University, told the UK's Sky News. '[This is] leading to a tremendous rise in water demand in summer.'
However, he added, agriculture is a far bigger drain on the country's water resources, amplified by waste and a lack of effective policies.
Alert conditions are rapidly emerging in large areas of Ukraine and neighbouring countries, impacting crops and vegetation, EDO warns.
Ukraine is one of Europe's fastest-heating countries, hitting 2.7°C above the 1951-1980 average in 2023. As a major exporter of grain, drought here has serious ramifications for global food supplies. Parts of Poland and Slovakia are suffering from the dry spell, too.
Alert conditions also persist in western, south-eastern and central Türkiye, northern and western Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, parts of Jordan, northern Iraq, Iran and Azerbaijan.
In northern Africa, alert and warning conditions have clung on for more than a year.
According to the EDO's Combined Drought Indicator (CDI), 39.6 per cent of the EU-27 and the UK have a drought warning.
This orange patch on the map stretches from Ireland to the northern slopes of the Alps, across to Finland, southern Russia and Türkiye.
During the 10-day period from 11 to 20 May, temperatures have been above the seasonal average in northern Europe.
As well as the agricultural impacts, there are concerns for hydropower. The International Hydropower Association has said that drought and intense rain - an example of 'climate whiplash' - are pushing power plants to "operate at the limits of their existing equipment".
Global warming is exacerbating drought in some parts of the world, including around the Mediterranean. Scientists at the World Weather Attribution found that the widespread drought of 2022, for example, was made 20 times more likely by climate change.
It will take time to do a similar study for spring 2025, but there is no doubt that climate change is making droughts worse by increasing temperatures and changing 'precipitation regimes', in the words of Andrea Toreti, coordinator of the Copernicus European and Global Drought Observatories.
Regions that would usually have a chance to recover or balance a lack of water in warmer seasons and prepare for summer cannot depend on rainfall in the same way, Toreti previously told Euronews Green.
'Nowadays, this sort of equilibrium has been modified.'
