The drought nightmare hits the European South – What the European Commission report says

Areas of Mediterranean continue to be threatened by abnormal drought until Novemberwhile “close to normal” weather conditions are expected across most of the EU, after a summer that weighed on crop yields, according to the European Commission.

Almost half of the EU’s territory (47%) remained, in the first ten days of August, exposed to “warning” levels of drought, recording a significant soil moisture deficit, the JRC, the Commission’s scientific research agency, announced today — almost at same level as last month.

And 17% have been placed on alert, with vegetation and crops severely weakened due to lack of water, up from 11% in early July.

Henceforth “after a long period of unusually dry weather, weather conditions approaching normal levels are forecast from August to October in much of Europe”, the JRC experts underline in their report.

“This may not be enough to fully recover from the (rainfall) deficit that has accumulated over six-plus months, but it will ease the critical conditions of many areas,” they estimate.

Already, rainfall since mid-August “may alleviate drought conditions”, although “in some areas, storms caused damage and may have limited the beneficial effects”.

However, for areas of the western Mediterranean “warmer and drier than average conditions could be seen until November” and parts of Spain and Portugal are expected to continue to experience “warning” levels of drought, the JRC points out.

The report estimates that atmospheric circulation conditions “generally associated with heat waves and drought during the summer months in Europe” have increased over the past three months to levels not seen since 1950 across much of the continent.

Among the areas most affected by the lack of rainfall, the report cites the central and southern Portugal, all of Spain, southern France, central Italy, southern Germany, as well as a huge area covering Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Moldova.

As scientists link them to global warming, these extremely hot and dry weather conditions “significantly reduced yield prospects for summer crops,” experts note.

According to the report, maize (yield reduced by 8.6% at EU level, sunflower (-5.5%) and soybeans (-9.6%) are most affected. The final yield for the maize crop on of the present is expected to be 16% below the average of the last five years.

RES-EMP

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