Spring temperatures do not bode well. Last month was the hottest May for ninety-two years in Portugal, with an average temperature of 19.19°C, an increase of 3.47°C compared to the period 1971-2000 , announced this week Public. Result : “97% of Portuguese territory is in a situation of severe drought”headlined Tuesday, June 14 the daily.
Because at the same time, the rainfall in May (8.9 mm) was much lower than the reference period, corresponding to only 13%, according to the Institute of the Sea and the Atmosphere (IPMA).
Photo satellite alarmante
An image, captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellites at the same place but five years apart, shows the extent of the damage caused by the drought: that of the Bravura reservoir, located in southern Portugal, which was 14.6% of its capacity last month. The contrast is striking between June 14, 2017 and June 8, 2022.
At the end of May, the IPMA also noted a significant decrease in the values of the percentage of water in the soil throughout the territory, particularly in the North and Center regions, the Tagus Valley, the Alentejo and the Algarve, where percentage values below 20% are found.