Extreme Heat Made Drought Up to 11 Times More Likely in Parts of Europe, Study Finds

Human-caused climate change has intensified drought conditions across Europe, with extreme heat being the primary driver rather than a lack of rainfall, according to a group of scientists. Countries like France and Romania are experiencing severe droughts, leading to water restrictions, devastating wildfires, and dried-up rivers, exacerbated by a historic heatwave in June. A new study by the World Weather Attribution (WWA) found that the warmer climate accelerated moisture loss from European soils, lakes, and rivers, increasing the likelihood of dry conditions. Mariam Zachariah, a co-author from Imperial College London, stated that the current drought is less about low precipitation and more about a hotter atmosphere causing greater soil moisture deficits. This implies that even regions with stable or increasing rainfall face rising drought risks due to a warmer atmosphere's increased capacity to hold water vapor. The planet has already warmed by approximately 1.4°C since the pre-industrial era, largely due to the burning of fossil fuels, making destructive events like droughts and heatwaves more frequent and intense, with Europe warming faster than other continents. The study, which compared current climate conditions to a hypothetical 1.4°C cooler climate, revealed that extremely dry soils are five times more probable in Western Europe and eleven times more probable in Eastern Europe today. Evaporation levels observed in Western Europe between April and June were 80 times more likely in the current climate. Simon Stiell of UN Climate highlighted that worsening droughts are a critical warning sign of a planet overheating, impacting food prices, energy systems, and river transport.