Worst Drought In 500 Years Scorches Europe

Once, a river ran through it. Now, white dust and thousands of dead fish cover the wide trench that winds amid rows of trees in France’s Burgundy region in what was the Tille River in the village of Lux, Sylvie Corbet and Nicolas Garriga reported for the Associated Press (AP).

Photo Insert: The drought is damaging farm economies, forcing water restrictions, causing wildfires, and threatening aquatic species.

From dry and cracked reservoirs in Spain to falling water levels on major arteries like the Danube, the Rhine, and the Po, an unprecedented drought is afflicting nearly half of the European continent. It is damaging farm economies, forcing water restrictions, causing wildfires, and threatening aquatic species.

There has been no significant rainfall for almost two months in Western, Central, and Southern Europe.

In typically rainy Britain, the government officially declared a drought across southern and central England on Friday amid one of the hottest and driest summers on record. And Europe’s dry period is expected to continue in what experts say could be the worst drought in 500 years.

Climate change is exacerbating conditions as hotter temperatures speed up evaporation, thirsty plants take in more moisture, and reduced snowfall in the winter limits supplies of fresh water available for irrigation in the summer.

Europe isn’t alone in the crisis, with drought conditions also reported in East Africa, the western United States, and northern Mexico.

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