{"id":405146,"date":"2022-02-13T00:25:44","date_gmt":"2022-02-12T21:25:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/spain-portugal-hit-by-winter-drought\/"},"modified":"2022-02-13T00:25:44","modified_gmt":"2022-02-12T21:25:44","slug":"spain-portugal-hit-by-winter-drought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/spain-portugal-hit-by-winter-drought\/","title":{"rendered":"#Spain, Portugal hit by winter drought"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Spain, Portugal hit by winter drought<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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\n \"Vilar
\n Vilar stands on the banks of the river, surrounded by cracked yellow earth, another sign of the ongoing dry spell during what is normally a rainy winter season, with the drought also hitting neighbouring Spain.
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In central Portugal, a sustained drought has revealed the ruins of a village that was totally submerged underwater when a large reservoir was created nearly 70 years ago.<\/p>\n

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“I have never seen that!” says Carlos Perdigao, 76, as he gazes at the ruined stone houses of Vilar which were swallowed up by the Zezere river when a dam was opened in 1954.<\/p>\n

Vilar stands on the banks of the river, surrounded by cracked yellow earth, another sign of the ongoing dry spell during what is normally a rainy winter season, with the drought also hitting neighbouring Spain.<\/p>\n

Weather services in both countries say it was the second driest January on record since the year 2000.<\/p>\n

The current drought is extraordinary because of “its intensity, scale and length”, says climate scientist Ricardo Deus of Portugal’s meteorology agency IPMA.<\/p>\n

Of Portugal’s 55 dams, 24 are only holding half of their water capacity, and five are below 20 per cent, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Earth observation service.<\/p>\n

The Algarve, Portugal’s southernmost province, and one of Europe’s top tourism destinations, is one of those most affected by the drought.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile Spain only got a quarter of the precipitation it normally gets in January, said the AEMET weather service. <\/p>\n

The dry spell, which began at the end of 2021, is ruining crops, leaving farmers struggling to feed livestock and hampering hydroelectricity production.<\/p>\n

‘It’s a disaster’<\/b><\/p>\n

Earlier this month, Portugal ordered five of its hydropower dams to suspend water use for electricity production in order to prioritise human consumption.<\/p>\n

Nearly 30 percent of Portugal’s electricity comes from hydropower dams.<\/p>\n

And in Spain, Agriculture Minister Luis Planas on Tuesday said the government was “concerned” about the drought and would adopt the “necessary measures” depending on how the situation evolves.<\/p>\n

Spain’s water reserves are currently at less than 45 percent of their capacity, officials say, with the southern Andalusia region and Catalonia in the northeast worst hit. <\/p>\n

Farmers in both countries are worried.<\/p>\n

“Look! The grass isn’t growing to feed the animals,” says Antonio Estevao, a cheese producer who owns a herd of around 30 goats in Portela de Fojo Machio, a village in central Portugal near the town of Pampilhosa da Serra.<\/p>\n

“If it doesn’t rain in the coming days, it’s going to be very complicated,” he sighs, gazing at his drought-stressed pastures.<\/p>\n

The lack of rain is also jeopardising the town’s efforts to draw tourists inland with a floating pool structure set up for bathers in the Zezere river.<\/p>\n

But the pool’s plastic lining lies slumped on the ground, with the drought forcing the river to recede.<\/p>\n

“For us, it’s a disaster,” says the town’s mayor, Henrique Fernandes Marques.<\/p>\n

The same area was badly hit by a wave of wildfires that raged through parched farmlands and forests in 2017, claiming over 100 lives.<\/p>\n

No end in sight<\/b><\/p>\n

More frequent and intense droughts are expected to put enormous strain on climate-vulnerable regions as temperatures rise, and will likely heighten the risk of related natural disasters such as wildfires, scientists say.<\/p>\n

While the alternation between dry and wet years is normal in southern Europe, “we have observed a decline in the percentage of rainy years lately,” said Filipe Duarte Santos, an environment specialist at Lisbon University.<\/p>\n

These droughts are “one of the most serious consequences of climate change,” he added.<\/p>\n

“Until greenhouse gas emissions are drastically reduced, the problem will continue.”<\/p>\n

The situation is not likely to improve in the coming weeks as forecasters expect rainfall in both countries to be below the seasonal average.<\/p>\n

Faced with this reality, the Portuguese government on Thursday said it would boost its cooperation with Spain to fight the drought.<\/p>\n\n

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Spain, Portugal struggle with extreme drought\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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\n \u00a9 2022 AFP<\/p>\n

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Citation<\/strong>:
\n Spain, Portugal hit by winter drought (2022, February 12)
\n retrieved 12 February 2022
\n from https:\/\/phys.org\/news<\/a>\/2022-02-spain-portugal-winter-drought.html<\/p>\n

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