Maximilien Carlier 06:30, May 09, 2022
Due to the lack of rain and mild temperatures lately, the threat of drought looms over the Hauts-de-France region.
Farmers are the first victims.
For the moment, they refuse to speak of disaster, but in Leforest, concern is beginning to spread.
Squatting in his field where he wants to grow corn, Hervé Lingrand is forced to dig in the ground with his knife.
"You have to scrape a few centimeters to get moisture," he explains, as the Hauts-de-France region is under threat of drought after relatively mild temperatures in recent weeks.
In the fields in sneakers, no need for boots
"It looks more like ashes than earth. Usually here, a normal year it would stick to the shoes, but here you are almost in basketball, me too. And it's going very well", analyzes Hervé Lingrand .
No need to put on the boots either to go to its beet fields right next door.
On site, the ground is cracked with major cracks: "I don't pass my hand through this crack yet, but the little finger, it goes up to the second phalanx. We see this especially during the summer, July, August , when it's very hot and very dry. There, it happens a little early I think", explains the farmer.
30 times more rain in one month
This drought is due to a lack of rain.
This farmer looks worriedly at the data from his rain gauge over a month.
“In 30 days, we see that 3mm of water has fallen per square meter. This represents a third of a watering can for one square meter. is between 30 and 40mm".
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That's 10 times more than usual.
“We have weather here like in Marseille,” he explains, a little annoyed.
"Except that there they don't grow beets and little corn."