Drought leaves Upper Austria 42 percent below normal rainfall

Rain has finally arrived, but it has not offset months of extreme dryness. According to ORF, new data from Geosphere Austria show that Upper Austria recorded 42 percent less rainfall than usual this year.

Lower Austria was even more severely affected, with rainfall 43 percent below average. Vienna and Burgenland followed, each recording a 39 percent shortfall.

From January 1 to August 12, 72 percent of Austria recorded more dry days than in any of the previous 65 years. Geosphere Austria climate researcher Klaus Haslinger described the situation on Monday as historic and said rapid relief was not currently in sight.

Rainfall cannot quickly erase the deficit

Even average rainfall would not quickly make up the existing shortfall, Haslinger said. Long-range forecasts point to somewhat wetter weather only from October, although forecasts beyond one month in the Alpine region are subject to considerable uncertainty.

Exceptional heat has further intensified the drought. The warmer the atmosphere becomes, the more moisture it removes from soil and plants, Geosphere Austria said. The problem is therefore not only the lack of rainfall but also high evaporation.

Austria has also experienced several heatwaves this year. In eastern Austria, an average of 26 days with temperatures of at least 30 degrees Celsius were recorded between February 23 and August 9. Geosphere Austria said this was a record since comparable data began in 1961. Temperatures reached as high as 41.2 degrees.

Drought index reaches record low

Researchers assess drought using the climatic water balance, which takes both rainfall and evaporation into account. The Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index fell to a historic low in July, according to Geosphere Austria. Haslinger called the reading unprecedented in the entire measurement record, saying it clearly exceeded previous drought years such as 2003, 2015 and 2018.

Austria’s longest continuous period this year with less than one millimetre of rainfall lasted up to 48 days. Eastern Austria is currently particularly affected. In Poysdorf in the Weinviertel, there has been no rain since July 8, according to Geosphere Austria.

Environmental organisation Greenpeace said the continuing drought was putting nature and agriculture under severe pressure. Its spokesman Herwig Schuster called on the federal government to introduce an immediate climate package.

“We are heading unchecked towards the worst water shortage since records began,” Schuster said. Waiting was no longer enough if springs dried up and soils became parched.