Long drought in Spain and summer heat in April – this affects the water

Last week it was reported that the temperature reached 38 degrees in some parts of Spain. Temperatures normally expected during the hot summer days in the country, but now are really noticeable in April.

Recently, very hot and dry air from Africa moved across the Iberian Peninsula, and the Spanish government has since requested emergency aid from the European Union to help farmers overcome severe drought in the country’s most important agricultural regions.

CNN reports between Another about the drought in Catalonia. A lack of rain is part of the norm for this time of year, but last year there was very little rain and little snow fell.

This is the worst period we have had in the last 100 years, Samuel Reyes, director of the Catalan water authority, told CNN.

The church is under water, now on land

According to Spain’s National Meteorological Service, the country has been experiencing a prolonged drought since the end of 2022, and in March, the country received only 36 percent of its usual precipitation.

Many in the country are now worried that last summer’s situation with dry crops and wildfires will repeat itself. And in some places the drought is visible in other ways.

As in the great Sau Reservoir outside Barcelona, ​​on which millions of Spaniards depend for their water supply. There you can see extremely low levels of water during the spring. Around Catalonia, the carrying capacity is about 25 percent, but in the São Reservoir it’s only 7 percent, according to CNN.

agricultural disaster

The medieval church, which has been under water since the cistern was built in the 1960s, is now on completely dry land again. Local authorities have had to empty the water of the fish that live there, to prevent them from suffering from a lack of oxygen when water levels are too low, according to CNN.

According to the American television channel, the drought has destroyed 3.5 million hectares of crops, and the drought affects 60 percent of the Spanish countryside. The drought is expected to affect not only crops but also animals on farms, vineyards and orchards across the country.

– These agro-climatic conditions lead to an agricultural disaster, Serge Zacca, an agrometeorologist, tells CNN.

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