Illustrative photo – The sun hits the dry bed of France's Tille river in the commune of Lux in Burgundy on August 9, 2022.
Paris – It didn't rain in metropolitan France the last 31 days, the French meteorological service said today. The number of days without precipitation thus equaled the record from 2020. Due to the lack of rain, according to the AFP agency, there is a risk that the groundwater, already depleted by the historic drought of last summer, will not be restored.
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Although some areas may have seen rain, the total rainfall since January 21st across Europe and continental France has not exceeded one millimeter per day. If it does not disperse today, it will break France's two-year-old record. However, the streak should end on Wednesday, when the south of the country is expected to disperse.
Irrespective of next week, this February should be one of the driest in France since records began in 1959, meteorologists say. Such an absence of rain “is mainly related to the high pressure that occurred at the end of January, which acted as a shield” against rainy weather, said Simon Mittelberger of the French meteorological service.
France, like other western European countries last summer experienced an extraordinary heat wave. Almost all metropolitan departments have declared a drought alert and restricted the use of water for watering or washing cars.
