Pre-summer drought alert in Europe
The report “European Climate Declaration 2022” of the Copernicus Climate Change Service of the European Union (EU) has been published.
According to the report, the last 8 years have been the hottest period in the world. 2022 was the second warmest year on record in Europe. In the last 5 years, the average air temperature in Europe has been measured 2.2 degrees above the 1850-1900 range, which is considered the pre-industrial period. This increase was 1.2 degrees on average worldwide.
Last year was 0.9 degrees warmer than the 1991-2020 period, which is also considered the reference period.
The summer of 2022 was also recorded as the “hottest summer” in Europe. Last summer, when intense and long heat waves were experienced in most of Europe, the temperature was 1.4 degrees above the average for the reference period.
THE RISK OF DROUGHT IS GROWING
“Across Europe, air temperatures are rising twice as fast as the global average. This rate of increase is higher than that of all other continents”, and drew attention to the drought and forest fires that occurred last summer.
It was claimed that a third of Europe was severely affected by drought in the summer of 2022, with a decline in average streamflow across 63 percent of the continent. The decline of the rivers has been reported to have continued for the last 6 years. Especially in the Alps, considered a source of water in southern Europe, snow loss has reached a record level. 5 square kilometers of glacier loss occurred in the Alps region.
The experts expressed the expectation that the increase in average temperatures will continue and warned of drought especially for the Mediterranean region. Experts from the Copernicus Climate Change Service, who reported that rainfall is insufficient in the winter months, especially in Spain, stated that this situation will have a negative impact on water resources. The experts warned that the spring months and next summer will be dry and explained that soil moisture is well below average in Mediterranean and southern European countries this winter due to drought. (AA)