Little water flowed into the sea: Lowest river discharge since around 30 years
European rivers have discharged as little water as in decades into the sea. The water there was often extremely warm. The heat and drought of summer had even more nasty consequences.
Europe's rivers recorded their lowest average flow rates since records began in 1992, with many major rivers such as the Rhein, Donau, Po, Loire, Rhône and Seine experiencing record-low or near-record-low flows in July and August. The EU's climate change service C3S reported that the seas around Europe were unusually warm, with record or near-record high sea surface temperatures along much of the Atlantic coast and in the western and central Mediterranean.
The summer was the third warmest on record for the continent and the warmest for Western Europe, with an average temperature of 21.7°C, 2.5°C above the 1991-2020 average. Prolonged drought and repeated heatwaves led to an exceptionally intense wildfire season, with nearly double the area burned in the EU compared to the 2006-2025 average by September 2, particularly affecting Spain and France.
Written by urgent.news from Handelsblatt's report — not a translation of it. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
