2025 ushered in by drought across Germany and Europe – weather service
Clean Energy Wire
Germany has seen its driest February to mid-April months since 1931, according to the country's meteorological service DWD.
DWD recorded about 40 litres of rain per square metre across the country – 68 percent less than in the 1991 to 2020 reference period. Germany's northwest was exceptionally dry in the first few months of 2025 and very few regions reached their precipitation targets.
The drought was pervasive across Europe, with the DWD deeming February and March "too dry" from Ireland and Britain to central and eastern Europe. In contrast, southern Europe was too wet in the same period. The southern half of Spain and Portugal measured precipitation levels at 165 percent above what is usual.
Flooding and drought are making life difficult for European farmers and putting harvests at risk. Regions in Poland, Belarus and Ukraine are at a high risk of experiencing a drought in 2025, as an "extremely dry" winter could not regenerate already dried out soils from the previous summer, German researchers warned earlier in April.
Europe experienced its hottest year on record in 2024, with the second highest number of days with extreme heat stress. No other continent is warming as quickly. Eastern Europe was especially hot and dry, and southern Europe experienced droughts even in winter months. At the same time, western Europe was exceptionally wet, with almost the largest amount of rainfall recorded since 1950, and it also experienced the most widespread flooding since 2013. Some 51 percent of cities on the continent now have climate adaptation plans, including expanding infrastructure like heat shelters and flood-absorbing green spaces. That is up from 26 percent in 2018.
