Drought in Europe hits crops, power output

Farmers in Europe are grappling with a drought that is threatening crops and that could lead to water shortages for households and challenges with hydro power generation.

The United Kingdom newspaper The Telegraph has reported the drought is particularly bad in Italy, where some wild boar have created panic by leaving their forests to seek food in populated areas.

Italy's farmers' association, Coldiretti, said the drought has led 300,000 of the nation's farms to report negative impacts.

In a study released in January, Austria's Graz University of Technology said that Europe has been in a severe drought since 2018, with groundwater levels now extremely low. Its study said Europe has experienced a succession of smaller droughts during that time, with wetter weather interspersed between them, but with the overall situation steadily getting worse.

Torsten Mayer-Gurr, one of the researchers, told The Guardian newspaper: "I would never have imagined that water would be a problem here in Europe, especially in Germany or Austria. We are actually getting problems with the water supply here. We have to think about this."

Last summer, the continent experienced its most severe single drought for 500 years. Experts have already said this summer could be even worse.

The European Drought Observatory said most of France and the United Kingdom are experiencing a "soil moisture deficit", with France recently experiencing 32 consecutive rainless days. Most of Ireland has a drought severe enough to threaten vegetation. In Spain, reservoirs are 50 percent of their average levels. The Alps mountain range has received 63 percent less snow than usual, and the water level of Italy's Lake Garda is the lowest it has been for 30 years. In Germany, the River Rhine is so shallow that barges can only carry half loads.

Andrea Toreti, a senior researcher at the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, told the Telegraph: "Given the current situation and considering the long-term effects of the 2022 drought, if enough precipitation will not occur in the coming weeks, there is high risk of yield losses, together with impacts on energy production, river transports, and on ecosystems."

With Italy's National Research Council saying the nation needs 50 days of rain to catch up, the Italian government is considering water rationing.

Teresa Jorda, minister of climate action, food and rural affairs for the Spanish region of Catalonia, told the Associated Press news agency that the extreme dry weather may actually not be an anomaly at all, but the way things are from now on because of global warming.

"This might be the new normal; we are going to have to learn to live with droughts like this," Jorda said, with food prices likely to rise as a result and the range of fruit and vegetables on offer set to change.