The year 2023 has only started a few months ago, but a sad record has already been broken. Between January 21 and February 20 inclusive, not a single drop of rain fell on French territory.
32 days without rain, a record for all months since records began in 1959, beating the 31 days reached between March 17 and April 16, 2020, in full confinement. However, this reality comes after an already particularly hot and dry summer.
Winter 2023 is thus marked by very mild temperatures for the season, accompanied by exceptional drought, bad news for groundwater and for the summer period to come.
“All the groundwater shows levels below normal and 80% of the levels are moderately low to very low”, writes the Bureau of Geological and Mining Research (BRGM) in a report closed on March 1 and published on Monday March 13.
In recent days, the rain has made a comeback in France and heavy rainfall has been observed in all four corners of the country. However, according to Emma Haziza, hydrologist interviewed by BFMTV, “It is not this rain that will solve everything. Only 10% of the rain reaches the water tables”.
“There is a statistical anomaly because we are normally supposed to be covered by rain, at least by Mediterranean episodes and we haven’t had any this year (…) we are arriving in a dramatic situation”, he explains. -She.
In some departments, the groundwater situation is particularly important and water reserves are at their lowest. The Drought Info site, which has more than 1,500 observation stations for 422 groundwater tables, has classified 34 departments in red with a “very low” reserve level. Discover in our slideshow the list of territories concerned.
