A dry country. July 2022 was the month with the least precipitation (9.7 millimeters) since March 1961 (7.8 mm) in France, and the driest July ever recorded by Météo-France, whose readings date back to 1959 Despite the thunderstorms expected from Sunday, these “rains should not succeed in infiltrating in depth”too dry soils favoring runoff, alerted the Bureau of Geological and Mining Research (BRGM) in a bulletin published Thursday.
Result: all the departments of metropolitan France are on drought alert, of which 22 are on heightened alert and 68 are in crisis. In the event of water shortages, there are four levels: vigilance, alert, heightened alert, crisis, with increasingly stringent restrictions, which affect individuals, farmers and industrialists alike.
The situation is “concerning” for a large number of groundwater tables in mainland France in July, due to water recharge “significantly below normal” during the winter and the ongoing historic drought, warns the BRGM.
The public establishment of geological research specifies however that the level of the emptying slows down “on many aquifers, probable consequences of the rains at the end of June and the reduction in withdrawals”, thanks to the restrictions ordered in almost all departments.