Drought conditions in European Union and UK affecting 63% of land

CNN — Sixty-three percent of land in the European Union and United Kingdom – an area nearly the same size as India – is now under either drought warnings or alerts, according to data published by the European Drought Observatory on Wednesday. On Monday, the EU’s climate monitoring agency Copernicus said that much of Europe experienced a drier-than-average July, with several local records broken in the west for low rainfall and drought hitting several parts of southwestern and southeastern Europe. Copernicus Senior Scientist Freja Vamborg said that “dry conditions from previous months combined with high temperatures and low precipitation rates seen in many areas during July may have adverse effects on agricultural production and other industries such as river transport and energy production.” Months with little rain In July, water reservoirs in several parts of Europe were at a very low levels, insufficient to sustain demand, according to Copernicus. July was also globally one of three warmest recorded, close to 0.4 degrees Celsius above the 1991-2020 average, and the sixth-hottest July in Europe, Copernicus said. “July 2022 has been extremely hot in Spain, the warmest since at least 1961, with an average temperature of 25.6 ºC, which is 2.7 ºC higher than the normal average,” the country’s national weather agency AEMET said in a post on Twitter.