The European Commission estimated this Tuesday that the Iberian Peninsula will have, by November, “drier than usual conditions“, admitting that “the risks may persist” regarding the drought and warning about the lack of water storage in Portugal.
“It is likely that in the coming months, until November 2022, warmer and drier than usual conditions in the Western Euro-Mediterranean region. In some areas of the Iberian Peninsula, drier conditions than usual are expected during the next three months”, indicates the Joint Research Center of the European Commission in an updated report on the evaluation of the drought situation in Europe.
In the document, published this day based on data and analysis from the European Drought Observatory, Brussels anticipates that “for most of Europe, after a long series of unusually dry forecastsit is expected to approach normal conditions between August and October 2022″, which will allow “alleviating the critical conditions of many European regions and affected sectors”.
But this is not the reality of the Iberian Peninsula, since the Joint Research Center estimates that “climatic conditions are drier than normal in western Spain and eastern Portugal”, as well as in the entire western Euro-Mediterranean region , where “some risks may persist“.
Regarding Portugal, the document indicates that, in the country, “the hydroelectric energy stored in water reservoirs is less than half of the average of the previous five years”.
“The state of water storage for irrigation is getting worse and all the reservoirs have been reduced. In most cases, water storage is expected to be sufficient to complete the crop irrigation cycle, but around 25% of reservoirs have a significant deficit and may not cover irrigation needs,” warns the community executive.
Also, “wildfire danger is high to extreme in most” from Portugal, he adds.
In the report on the drought situation in the European Union (EU) for August, the Joint Research Center indicates that 47% of the community space is in alert conditions, which means that rainfall has been below normal and that soil moisture is deficient
Furthermore, 17% of the EU territory is on alert, which means that vegetation and crops also show negative effects of the drought.
In the previous report, since July, 46% of the EU was exposed to alert levels, while 11% was in a drought alert situation, which means that the situation worsened in the community space in August.
According to European experts, the current drought could be the worst in at least 500 years.
“The severe drought that has affected many regions of Europe since the beginning of the year has been spreading and worsening since the beginning of August. Dry conditions are related to a widespread and persistent lack of precipitation combined with a sequence of heat waves beginning in May,” the community service said in the report.
The document also points out that among the regions most affected by negative rainfall anomalies between June and August are the center and south of Portugal, Spain, the south of France, the center of Italy, the south of Germany, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania.
The Iberian Peninsula suffered a prolonged heat wave in the first half of July 2022, resulting in above-average long-term temperatures for the same month, and high temperatures are still being recorded.
Source: Observadora
