The European Commission announced on Tuesday, quoted by the DPA agency, that the drought in Europe “appears to be the worst in at least 500 years”.

• “Of course, this is only a first estimate and we have to confirm it with final data at the end of this year,” said Johannes Barke, a spokesman for the European Commission.

Drought warning for 47% of Europe

Almost half of Europe is at risk of drought, according to a report by the Joint Research Center (JRC) of the European Commission.

The authors of the report say that as of August 10, 47% of the territory of Europe has reached the danger level of drought, while 17% of the observed regions are under the maximum danger level.

Low rainfall and a series of heat waves since May have affected river flows and water levels in Europe.

The decrease in water volumes also had a negative impact on energy, both on the production of hydroelectric power plants and on the cooling systems of power plants.

The drought significantly reduced the yield of spring agricultural crops, with corn, soybeans and sunflowers the most affected, the authors of the report state.

“Soil moisture and vegetation have been severely affected,” said the report, which listed more than 12 countries at increased risk of drought, including Germany, France and the UK. “In the rest of Europe, which has already suffered from drought, stable conditions of severe drought persist,” the authors of the study added.

Romania is among the affected states

According to the report, weather conditions will worsen the most in regions already affected by drought in the spring of 2022 – for example, northern Italy, southeastern France and parts of Hungary and Romania.

According to scientists’ forecasts, warmer and drier weather in the Western European-Mediterranean region will most likely last until November.

“Recent rainfall (since mid-August) may have eased drought conditions in some parts of Europe. However, in some areas, storms associated with this precipitation caused material damage and may have limited the beneficial effects of the precipitation,” the authors added. This is reported by Agerpres.