According to a new study by the European Drought Observatory, drought may affect about 60% of the EU and Great Britain, which will be exacerbated by the record heat in Europe this summer, caused by climate change,
KYIV. UkraineGate . 10 . August . 2022 | Society .
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The EU’s climate change service Copernicus notes “increased fire risk due to the lack of rain and associated dry vegetation combined with high temperatures” as wildfires continue to rage across Europe.
Meanwhile, dry weather conditions are expected to persist in many European countries in August and September, exacerbating an “already very critical situation”, the European Commission’s European Drought Observatory said in July.
According to the observatory, this will “exacerbate the severity of the drought and its impact on agriculture, energy and water supply”.
The European Drought Observatory examined data for a 10-day period near the end of July and found that by the middle of the month, 45% of the EU was under a drought warning and 15% was in a “red alert” state of acute water scarcity.
In the United Kingdom, where Met Office data showed the English regions of East Anglia, the South East and the South faced a dry July due to historic heatwaves, the country’s Center for Ecology and Hydrology warned that the drought was likely to continue.
“Droughts have become our reality this summer,” European Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries Virginius Sinkevičius wrote on Twitter on Tuesday.
Countries including France, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands are facing water shortages, with riverbeds drying up across Europe. Drought conditions seriously affect energy production, agriculture and river transport.
Thus, 100 municipalities in France do not have running water, the level of the Rhine in Germany and France is so low that the transportation of goods is at risk, and the Netherlands “officially faced a water shortage”, noted Sinkevičius.
“Restoring nature is the best solution to change this,” he added.
Another heat wave is forecast to hit northwest and central Europe this week.
The Met Office has issued a yellow heat warning for much of southern England and parts of Wales from Thursday to Sunday, following its first extreme heat warning last month.
Source: Ukrgate
