Sixty percent of land in the European Union and the United Kingdom is under "warnings or alerts" for drought, according to the European Drought Observatory.

According to CNN, Telegrafi reports, the findings were based on data from a 10-day period near the end of July.

The monitor said 45% of the land was now covered by "warnings", meaning there is a lack of soil moisture, while 15% is under the most severe "alert" level, where vegetation is most affected.

Cubillas Reservoir in Granada, southern Spain

The data coincided with a report published on Monday by the EU's climate monitoring agency Copernicus, which said much of Europe experienced a drier-than-average July, with some local records broken in the west for little rain and drought that hit parts of southwestern and southeastern Europe.

Those conditions made it easier for the fires to spread and intensify, according to the report, which also comes as parts of Europe grapple with brutal heat waves in what is shaping up to be one of the continent's hottest summers on record.

The water in the Waal River in Nijmegen – the Netherlands – has dropped to a very low level

The new data comes as the world faces a food crisis that is only just easing as Russia is expected to lift its blockade of grain exports from Ukraine.

Otherwise, extreme weather and supply chain issues have exacerbated the crisis and are likely to continue for some time.

A recent report from the Joint Research Centre, the European Commission's science service, predicts an 8-9% drop in EU maize, sunflower and soybean production due to hot and dry summer conditions, well below the average in five years.

Unexploded bomb disposal, Borgo Virgilio, Italy

And Copernicus Senior Scientist Freja Vamborg said that "the dry conditions from previous months combined with the high temperatures and low rainfall rates observed in many areas during July could have negative effects on agricultural production and other industries such as river transport and energy production".

Months with less rain

In July, water reservoirs in some parts of Europe were at very low levels, insufficient to support demand, according to Copernicus, writes CNN.

Southern England experienced its driest July since records began in 1836, while this month across the UK was the driest July in more than 20 years.

The UK saw just 46.3mm, or 56%, of its average rainfall for the month after a long period of drier than average months, with the exception of February.

François Durand collecting sea salt in western France

In France, July saw a total rainfall of 9.7 mm, making it the driest July since records began in 1959 and representing a rainfall deficit of 85% compared to the 1991-2020 average.

Meanwhile, in Italy, a lack of rain since December 2021 has hit the northern parts of the country and the Po River dried up completely in some places earlier this summer.

In mid-July in Cremona – about halfway along the Po – the water was more than 8 meters below “hydrographic zero”, affecting hydropower production, agriculture and transport.

Cattle on parched fields in Tinténiac, northwestern France

Copernicus said the situation improved as a result of rain at the end of the month, which brought a rise of 40cm to the river, although hydropower production in the region was still affected.

July was also globally one of the three warmest on record, close to 0.4 degrees Celsius above the 1991-2020 average, and the sixth hottest July in Europe, Copernicus said.

Spain, France and the United Kingdom experienced at least one day above 40 degrees Celsius last month.

A dry corn field in Rogoza, eastern Slovenia

In the UK, temperatures soared to over 40 degrees Celsius (104.5 degrees Fahrenheit) on July 19 with the English village of Coningsby recording 40.3 degrees Celsius for the first time ever.

And Spain reported its hottest July in over 60 years.

"July 2022 has been unusually hot in Spain, the warmest since 1961, with an average temperature of 25.6 ºC [78.1 Fahrenheit], which is 2.7 ºC [4.9 Fahrenheit] more higher than the normal average", said the country's national weather agency AEMET.

July was "0.2 ºC [0.4 Fahrenheit] higher than July 2015, which was the warmest July on record."

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