After a March with almost no rain, an even worse start to April -barely 2 liters per square meter in Spain as a whole- and with no prospect of rainfall for the next few days, the drought worsens in almost the whole countrywith greater intensity in large areas of the north, northeast of the peninsula and in Andalusia.
For the next ten days “There are no signs of large amounts of rain“, has advanced Rubén Del Campo, spokesman for Aemet, who stresses that this situation “sharpens” the long-term meteorological drought that drags Spainespecially in the northeast of Castilla y León, the Basque Country, Navarra, northern Aragon, Catalonia, Andalusia and southern Castilla-La Mancha.
Howeverthe drought is not an isolated event: in the last 60 years, mainland Spain has experienced three long-lasting and intense droughts (1982-1984, 1991-1996 and 2005-2009), with 2005 being the year with the least rainfall in the series studied (1961-2018). Other shorter episodes occurred between 1975 and 1976, 1987 and 1988, 2000 and 2001, and 2017 and 2018.
“Sometimes there may be areas that are now experiencing a very intense drought,” but for all of mainland Spain these have been the worst episodes to date, Del Campo has specified.
the lack of rain It also results in the accumulated precipitation, which since last October 1 and until the first week of April throws 334 liters per square meter throughout Spain, that is, 19% less than the normal value for that period (411 litres).
By geographic areas, the accumulated amounts are below normal in the Cantabrian fringe, except in Galicia, in a large part of the eastern half of the Peninsula, in the southern third and in the Canary Islands, except in the southern half of Tenerife.
This situation, far from reversing, does not augur rosy forecasts: May, for the moment, “does not seem to be very rainy, and June never usually is” -Del Campo has observed- who stresses that in the face of summer, the models announce a season that is “very hot again, we don’t know if it’s as hot as last year, but with temperatures well above normal”.
The lack of precipitation subtracts moisture from the soil, reduces the flow of rivers and reduces the water reservewhich today totals 28,665 cubic hectometres, a figure far removed from the decadal average (37,445 hm3), according to data from the Ministry for Ecological Transition, which detail that the water stored in the swamps is the lowest percentage for this week since 2011, second only to 2022.
By autonomous communities, The highest levels of dammed water are in Galicia (80.1%) followed by Asturias (78.9%), the Basque Country (76.1%), La Rioja (73.9%), Castilla y León (70%) , The Community of Madrid (68.3%), the Foral Community of Navarra (64.3), Aragon (58%), the Valencian Community (57.5%) and Extremadura (52.3%).
Below 50 percent water stored are the communities of Cantabria (42.7%), Catalonia (42.4%) Castilla-La Mancha (40%), while in the last positions, and with less than 30 percent of dammed water, are Andalusia (29.5% ) and the Region of Murcia (27.7%).
Almería, Barcelona and Córdoba, the one with the least dammed water
As a curious fact, it should be noted that, by provincesAlmería (12.9%) Barcelona (14.2%) and Córdoba (19.2%) are those that currently have less dammed water.
Del Campo has emphasized that The lack of rain also has repercussions in other aspects such as forest fires and agriculture. In this sector, and given the alarming situation in the Spanish countryside, the Ministry of Agriculture has convened the National Drought Table for next week.
In Andalusia, with the Guadalquivir basin at 25.5 percent of its capacitythe Andalusian Government finalizes a third drought decree, which will be launched in April.
for his partthe president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, has warned that the drought is already “the first problem in Catalonia” and has opted to “adapt the country” Given this new scenario of water stress, what happens is to build new infrastructures such as desalination plants and water treatment plants in the medium term.
With regard to forest fires, the spokesman regretted the almost 52,000 hectares burned in Spain between January and April: “The fire situation has started very badly due to the drought and the large amount of organic matter that is so dry that we have in the forests.”
“In the last 16 years we have not had so many fires at this time of the year in Spain and, for the moment, there is no clear change in the trend in rainfall that could improve the situation“, it is finished.
