Almost half of the territory of continental Portugal was in a weak or moderate meteorological drought at the end of May, with greater attention in the Southern region, according to the Portuguese Institute of the Sea and the Atmosphere (IPMA).
On May 31 around 48% of the territory was in weak (36.3%) to moderate (11.9) meteorological drought, while at the end of April, only 8% of the territory was in weak drought.
According to the Bulletin, there was an increase in the area affected by drought in southern regionas well as its intensity, since much of the Beja district and the eastern Algarve are facing a moderate drought.
At the end of May, 36.3% of the territory was in the weak drought class, 35.4% in the normal class, 11.9% in moderate drought, 11.9% in light rains, 3.0% in moderate rains and 1.5% in heavy rains.
The institute classifies the meteorological drought index into nine classes, which vary between “extreme rainfall” and “extreme drought.”
According to IPMA, There are four types of drought.: meteorological, agricultural, hydrological and socioeconomic.
Data from the IPMA Climatological Bulletin also indicate that last month was classified as normal in terms of air temperature and dry in terms of precipitation.
During the month there were two heat wavesregistering the first in the period from the 7th to the 12th, with a duration of six days, covering some localities in the central and southern interior, and the second in the end of Maylasting until the first days of June in some places in the north, central interior, Tagus valley and southern interior.
According to the data, the total monthly precipitation (33.5 mm) was lower (28.9 mm) than the average value from 1981 to 2010.
Regarding the percentage of water on the groundThe institute affirms that there has been a very significant decrease in the percentage throughout the territory.
The northeastern regions of Trás-os-Montes and the Tagus Valley recorded values of percentage of water in the soil between 20 and 40% and the southern region, in particular the Lower Alentejo, with values below 20%.
Source: Observadora
