Increasingly hot Europe faces more Severe Droughts and Growing Challenges for Water and Land Management – publication
juli 23
The European summer of 2026 has so far been characterised by exceptional heat and widespread dryness (Copernicus, 2026).
Between April and June, large parts of the continent, from Portugal in the southwest to southern Finland in the northeast, received below-average rainfall. Combined with successive heatwaves, these conditions have intensified drought across Europe, contributing to widespread agricultural and hydrological impacts, unusually low river levels (NOS, 2026), and severe wildfires, particularly in Spain and France, where 116,000 and 42,000 hectares have already been burnt, respectively (EFFIS, 2026). Although western Europe experienced a relatively wet start to the year, persistent precipitation deficits in eastern Europe carried over from 2025, resulting in different types and stages of drought developing across the continent. With forecasts indicating little relief in the near term, the summer of 2026 is emerging as one of Europe’s most significant heat and drought events in recent years. Scientists from Austria, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, the Netherlands, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, the UK, and the US used established, peer-reviewed methods to assess whether, and to what extent, climate change influenced the European drought. Drought can be defined in several ways. Meteorological drought is characterised by below average rainfall, whereas agricultural drought occurs when lack of rainfall or dry soil affects farming and crop growth and is measured by soil moisture or by estimating the balance between rainfall and evapotranspiration over time. Because increased evapotranspiration driven by regional warming can substantially intensify drought impacts, we separately assess the contributions of both low rainfall and potential evapotranspiration (PET), as well as soil moisture. As the temporal extent of the drought is quite different in the western part of Europe compared to the East, we look at two different timescales: the 3 month drought in the western region and the 6-12 month drought in the eastern region.
The European summer of 2026 has so far been characterised by exceptional heat and widespread dryness (Copernicus, 2026).
Between April and June, large parts of the continent, from Portugal in the southwest to southern Finland in the northeast, received below-average rainfall. Combined with successive heatwaves, these conditions have intensified drought across Europe, contributing to widespread agricultural and hydrological impacts, unusually low river levels (NOS, 2026), and severe wildfires, particularly in Spain and France, where 116,000 and 42,000 hectares have already been burnt, respectively (EFFIS, 2026). Although western Europe experienced a relatively wet start to the year, persistent precipitation deficits in eastern Europe carried over from 2025, resulting in different types and stages of drought developing across the continent. With forecasts indicating little relief in the near term, the summer of 2026 is emerging as one of Europe’s most significant heat and drought events in recent years. Scientists from Austria, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, the Netherlands, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, the UK, and the US used established, peer-reviewed methods to assess whether, and to what extent, climate change influenced the European drought. Drought can be defined in several ways. Meteorological drought is characterised by below average rainfall, whereas agricultural drought occurs when lack of rainfall or dry soil affects farming and crop growth and is measured by soil moisture or by estimating the balance between rainfall and evapotranspiration over time. Because increased evapotranspiration driven by regional warming can substantially intensify drought impacts, we separately assess the contributions of both low rainfall and potential evapotranspiration (PET), as well as soil moisture. As the temporal extent of the drought is quite different in the western part of Europe compared to the East, we look at two different timescales: the 3 month drought in the western region and the 6-12 month drought in the eastern region.
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Zonder klimaatverandering was het nu niet zo droog geweest
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