European Commission: The drought in Europe is the worst in 500 years

The European Commission said on Tuesday that drought in Europe appears to be "the worst in at least 500 years".

Commission spokesman Johannes Bahrik, speaking of research published on Monday, said: "This is of course an initial assessment and we need to confirm this with the final data at the end of the season."

Drought threatens nearly half of Europe, according to a report by the European Commission's Science and Knowledge Service.

 As of August 10, 47 percent of Europe's land has reached the drought warning level, while 17 percent of surveyed areas are on high alert, the report said.

The researchers emphasized that dry conditions associated with scarce rains and a number of heat waves from May onwards affected the discharge of rivers on a large scale across Europe.

The decrease in water volume has also negatively affected the power sector for both hydroelectric generation and cooling systems in other power stations.

The researchers added that drought significantly reduced the harvest of summer crops, and affected corn, soybeans and sunflowers.

 The report listed more than a dozen countries at increased risk of drought, including Germany, France and Britain.

 The areas where conditions are getting worse are those already affected by the drought in the spring of 2022, such as northern Italy, southeastern France, and some areas in Hungary and Romania, the report said.

 The researchers predict that warmer and drier than usual weather conditions are likely to continue into November in the western Euro-Mediterranean region.

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