While its small size may play a role, there is no denying that the Grand Duchy is facing a glaring scarcity of moisture in its soils, in line with the wider European trend.
According to data published on the European Drought Observatory’s website, the entirety of Luxembourg is grappling with a significant lack of rainfall, placing the country at the heart of a large zone where drought is in the “warning phase.”
This dry spell extends across “northeastern France, the Benelux region, and Germany,” affecting areas like Lorraine in France and the entire German border region from Schengen to Trier. Even the intermittent rainfalls in May and June, though intense, have been unable to alleviate the situation.
While Southern Europe is slowly recovering from a prior drought, the northern part of the continent is in a phase of deterioration.
As of early July, Central European countries bore the brunt of the crisis, with 75.2% of acreage affected in Germany and 86.7% in Poland. Switzerland and Belgium also suffered, with 79.4% and 88.7% of their land impacted, respectively. However, Luxembourg faced the highest impact, as 100% of the country’s land was affected by drought.
Though the current episode is so far slightly less intense than the 2022 drought, where 52.9% of the country was affected on the same date, it highlights a concerning trend.
Europe has experienced soil droughts surpassing 40% for at least one month every year since 2018, a stark increase compared to the period between 2012, when measurements began, and 2017, during which no such episodes occurred.
