The warning: « especially difficult » situation with forest fires this summer
This year’s March was the hottest ever in Europe, as a result of climate change. At the same time, much less rain was seen compared to average in large parts of Northern and Eastern Europe. This has led to 41.2 percent of the continent now being in some form of drought, according to the latest update EU Observatory for drought, which refers to the time period 11 to 20 May, writes Sky News.
The situation is most urgent in parts of southeastern Spain, Cyprus, Greece and Albania – where the highest warning has been announced. But even in large parts of Eastern Europe, in Poland and Ukraine, as well as in Northern Europe, in Germany and France, it is dry.
On Thursday, the British Swedish Environmental Protection Agency also assumed that there is official drought in northwestern England. After a spring with a little rain, the river and reservoir levels have basically diminished, writes Sky News.
That spring has been so dry beds for an increased forest fire risk in summer in southern Europe.
Greece’s Minister for Climate Crisis and Civil Protection, Ioannis Kefalogiannis, has warned that the situation this summer can be « particularly difficult ». To prepare, the country has put a record number of firefighters, 18,000, in readiness and doubled its drone fleet in order to fight the flames.
According to meteorologist Emma Rosengren can be broken as low pressure can suddenly pull in.
– It can be pretty quick turns. At the beginning of May, for example, we had it very dry in Sweden, but then we got a couple of rain areas and now we are better with the fire risk. It can also happen across the continent, she says.
However, she emphasizes that there must be a lot of rain in order for it to make a difference.
– At least it sounds like a bad starting position, says Emma Rosengren about the drought.
At the same time sinks The water supply in Greece because of the heat, but also the pressure from mass tourism to the country. To the islands of Santorini and Mykonos, water has been forced into water from the capital Athens or various desalination stations for the inhabitants and visitors to shower and to fill the pools. Now it is not enough to use previous methods, such as collecting and cleaning rainwater.
According to the international research group World Weather Attribution, global warming aggravates the drought that affects different parts of the world – including the Mediterranean. Forest fires, which have ravaged most of the countries around the Mediterranean in recent summers, are often started by people, but are spread faster and aggravate due to the drought.
Last summer was the hottest in Greece in modern times with temperatures over 40 degrees. Hundreds of fires broke out across the country, including on Greece’s second largest island Evia and the popular tourist target Kos. Thousands of residents and tourists needed to be evacuated. Several fires also raged around the capital Athens.
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