Dry canals, low rivers and shrunken lakes: Europe braces for severe drought amid winter heatwave

Images of dried-up river beds and shrunken lakes are usually associated with the scorching heat of summer – not the winter. But an exceptionally warm and dry start to the year is affecting a swath of Europe, including central and southwest France, northern Spain and northern Italy.

It is having a damaging effect on the country’s rivers and lakes, Mittelberger said, as well as the country’s soils. A lack of snow in the winter can threaten water reserves in the spring and summer, as there is less snowmelt to sustain rivers. Water levels at Lake Garda are so low that it is now possible to walk to an island in the middle, along a strip of exposed lake bed. A few months ago, this walkway did not exist.

Giorgio Zampetti, general manager of Legambiente, an Italian environmental group, fears that the worst is yet to come: “2023 has just begun, but it is showing worrying signs in terms of extreme weather events [and] drought levels,” he said in a press statement.In Spain, which experienced its hottest year on record last year, there are concerns about water supplies.

Since 1980 the average available water has decreased by 12%, with projections that there may be a further decrease of up to 40% by 2050.

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