Climate change: Drought and heat drain Spanish reservoirs

Climate change: Drought and heat drain Spanish reservoirs
August 10, 2022, 3:44 pm

Heatwave effect: Spanish reservoirs are at just 40 percent of capacity on average in early August, well below the 10-year average of around 60 percent - Photo. Pixabay

A flock of sheep shelter from the midday sun under the gothic arches of a medieval bridge flooded in 1956 to create the Cijara reservoir in central Spain, but now fully exposed as the reservoir is 84 percent empty after a severe drought, the al-Arabiya English reported.

In Andalusia, one of Europe's hottest and driest regions, paddle-boats and waterslides lie abandoned on the cracked bed of Vinuela reservoir, remnants of a rental business gone with the water, now at a critical level of 13 percent. A nearby restaurant fears a similar fate.

“The situation is quite dramatic in the sense that it's been several years without rain and we're hitting rock bottom,” said owner Francisco Bazaga, 52. “If it doesn't rain, unless they find some alternative water supply, the future is very, very dark.”

A prolonged dry spell and extreme heat made July the hottest month in Spain since at least 1961. Spanish reservoirs are at just 40 percent of capacity on average in early August, well below the 10-year average of around 60 percent, official data shows.

A heat wave is usually measured relative to the usual weather in the area and relative to normal temperatures for the season. Temperatures that people from a hotter climate consider normal can be called a heat wave in a cooler area if they are outside the normal climate pattern for that area - Pic. Pixabay

“We are in a particularly dry year, a very difficult year that confirms what climate change scenarios have been highlighting,” Energy Minister Teresa Ribera told a news conference on Monday, also highlighting that the drought was leading to devastating wildfires.

PM Pedro Sanchez: 'More than 500 died' from heatwave in Spain

Climate change has left parts of the Iberian peninsula at their driest in 1,200 years, and winter rains are expected to diminish further, a study published last month by the Nature Geoscience journal showed.

The dry, hot weather is likely to continue into the autumn, Spain's meteorological service AEMET said in a recent report, putting further strain on Europe's largest network of dammed reservoirs with a holding capacity of 5.6 billion cubic meters.

At the Buendia reservoir east of Madrid, the ruins of a village and bathhouses have reappeared, caked in dried mud, Reuters drone footage showed, while at another dam near Barcelona a ninth-century Romanesque church has reemerged still intact, attracting visitors.

Source: alarabiyaenglish

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