2023-04-20 12:01:00
The climate situation in Europe is particularly worrying. The Old Continent has reached an average temperature of 2.2 °C above the pre-industrial era (1850-1900), according to the data provided by the Copernicus program in its Report on the State of the Climate in Europe 2022.
The data indicates that the year 2022 ranked as the second warmest in European history, with temperatures 0.9°C above average compared to the reference period 1991-2020. And the summer previously set a record as the hottest in Europeregistering temperatures 1.4°C above the average in relation to the last 30 years.
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For comparison purposes, in fact, it can be said that Europe is warming at twice the rate of the Earth average. Among many of the factors involved is the lack of snow in the Alps and in the polar zone, whose function is to reflect solar radiation at sea and on land. When this phenomenon does not occur, more solar energy is collected, more heat is retained, and the temperature increases more.
He Copernicus program is an initiative of the European Union (EU) aimed at monitoring the Earth and developing information services based on satellite data. Today, it is the most ambitious Earth observation program in history, designed to provide accurate, up-to-date, and easily accessible information to improve environmental management.
THE BIG PROBLEM: THE DROUGHT
At the same time, the widespread drought was one of the most relevant climatic events that affected Europe. This situation was the result of the combination of insufficient rainfall and elevated temperatures.
For example, during winter 2021-2022, many regions of Europe experienced up to 30 fewer days of snow. Rainfall in May reached the lowest level recorded for that month. Alpine glaciers suffered unprecedented ice loss, estimated at more than 5 km³.
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As a result of these events, the flow of European rivers reached the second lowest level on record; This marks the sixth consecutive year with below average flows. The phenomenon was evident above all in rivers in countries such as France, Germany and Poland.
In short, 2022 was the driest year on record and 63% of European rivers had below-average flows.
THE SITUATION IN SPAIN
Looking at the map of Spain, most of the main Iberian rivers have exceptionally lower flows than they used to reach the sea in August.
The meteorological drought has affected water reserves that were already under sustained high demand. Despite the abundant rains in March and April in Spain, reservoir levels could not recover.
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Subsequently, extreme heat and insufficient rainfall have aggravated the situation, not only increasing the drought, but also the forest fireswhich have been so numerous that carbon emissions from burning vegetation have reached their highest level on the continent in 15 years.
The Copernicus experts are clear on what is the trigger for all these events: global warming and unstable weather are ultimately consequence of the greenhouse effect caused by gases emitted by human activities. In fact, in 2022, atmospheric concentrations of CO2 and methane reached their highest levels since they began to be measured by satellites.
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