In Italy, environmental organization Legambiente is sounding the alarm, warning that there has been 53 percent less snowfall in the Alps in recent months than the long-term average. The problem is not only that there is no snow, but also that there is no rain. Rainfall in the Po basin, Italy’s largest river, decreased by 61 percent. A second consecutive summer drought is already feared in France, after several weeks of virtually no rain.
High pressure areas over Western Europe
Blocking areas of high pressure that pushes rain fronts away in Western Europe is responsible for low precipitation. It’s not the first time this type of weather has led to extreme dry years, Haslinger said. Even 60 years ago, there was little rain for years due to a certain temperature distribution on land and sea. “At that time the level of the Danube fell to a record low,” the meteorologist said. There is evidence that global warming may support these temperature patterns.
“If spring weather is similar to 2022, the drought will become much worse,” warns agricultural meteorologist Josef Eitzinger of the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna. It turns out that rivers will carry much less meltwater. “This means that the resource peak, which will also be important for groundwater replenishment, is missing.” In France, according to available data from the national water monitoring system, 125 of the 422 observed groundwater areas are currently at very low level, 120 at low level and 97 at moderately low level.
Water shortage in Venice causes canals to dry up
Water shortages are also affecting Venice, but this is mostly due to recent high-pressure weather conditions, tides and the associated low sea level, rather than drought and lack of precipitation in northern Italy. Due to the water level, many gondolas in Lagoon city are muddy and the smaller canals are no longer navigable. Most recently, a water level was measured more than 65 centimeters below normal level at low tide.
Meanwhile, northern Italy is suffering from prolonged drought. According to the news of the newspaper La Repubblica, after February, when there is no rain in Italy’s “Food Valley”, there is a risk of a 40 percent drop in national food production. No one remembers a worse drought there.
Lake Maggiore is only 38 percent
According to media reports, Lake Maggiore is only 38 percent full and Lake Como is no better. But drought is also making itself felt further south in Italy. Capital newspaper “Il Messaggero” reported that the water level in Rome’s Tiber has already dropped 1.50 meters.
“The snow gap today is the drought next summer and fall,” said Manuela Brunner, Head of Mountainous Hydrology and Climate Impacts at the WSL Snow and Avalanche Research Institute (SLF) in Davos. The effects have increased significantly over the decades. One study found that the number of droughts caused by snowmelt deficits was 15 percent higher in the 1994-2017 period than in 1970-1993. She assumes the trend will continue due to the rising profit streak. This reduces the amount of water reserves stored in snow.
Reservoirs run out due to a winter with little snowfall
“The Alps are one of Europe’s “skyscraper regions,” said hydrogeologist Johannes Barth of Friedrich-Alexander University in Erlangen-Nuremberg. “It is a region with the highest precipitation rates based on experience, because here the clouds simply slow down and it rains locally. ” Alps can store less water in groundwater compared to plains. They have seasonal water reservoirs, mostly in the form of snow and ice. “If these reservoirs are not available due to a winter with little snowfall, glaciers are further reduced and adjacent water systems such as rivers and lakes, as well as adjacent water systems such as rivers and lakes, groundwater is fed less.”
Due to record low levels of groundwater south of Vienna, many farmers will have to adapt to restrictions on irrigation of fields, Eitzinger says. The level of Lake Neusiedl on the border with Hungary, which is ecologically particularly valuable – fed mainly by rainwater – is lower than ever before.
Source : Blick
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