Drought is at its lowest level in Europe since early 2022

Since mid-June, drought in early August has fallen to its lowest level since the start of 2022 in Europe and along the entire Mediterranean coast, according to the latest data from the European Drought Observatory (EDO) analyzed by AFP.

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From August 1 to August 10, soil dryness affected 28% of European lands and the coasts of the Near East and Africa on the Mediterranean Sea, at its lowest level since January 2022.

Last year at the same time, the drought was twice as wide (55.8%).

The European index, which is updated approximately every ten days, is based on anomalies in rainfall, soil moisture and vegetation condition, depending on the region and type of climate. On the other hand, it does not take into account the groundwater level, which for example in France is still at an abnormally low level.

If the soil drought is less severe this year, after an extremely dry 2022, the latest data remains exceptional. The proportion of land affected by drought has rarely fallen below the 30% mark since the spring of 2021. Between 2012, when EDO measurements began, and 2018, it was very rare for it to reach this threshold.

At the beginning of August, the countries of Central Europe, which had been severely affected at the beginning of summer, were gradually emerging from the drought cycle, with 26% of the land concerned in Germany (compared to 96% at the peak) and 67% in Poland (against 95%). %).

The same trend is in France, where 21% of the territory was affected at the beginning of August, compared to 64% at the beginning of June.

At the beginning of the month, the most affected countries were Lithuania (84%), Armenia and Iceland (82%) and Estonia (76%).