Southern Portugal’s drought recedes slightly after warm, wet January

 

Southern Portugal’s drought recedes slightly after warm, wet January

By Natasha Donn -14th February 2024

https://www.portugalresident.com/southern-portugals-drought-recedes-slightly-after-warm-wet-january/

 

… And more rain is on way, affirm meteorologists

 

The technical state of ‘meteorological drought’ suffered in Portugal’s southern regions (Algarve/ Alentejo) has decreased thanks to a warm, wet January – but the situation is by no means markedly different.

 

As of January 31, 20% of national territory remained in ‘meteorological drought’, whereas only a month before the percentage had been 38%.

 

What it means is that, as of the end of January, the  southern part of the district of Setúbal and the districts of Beja (Alentejo) and Faro (taking in the whole Algarve) were still in meteorological drought, although with less intensity than in December.

 

In fact, the only part of the Algarve deemed to remain in a situation of meteorological drought is the east (Sotovento), which had reduced within that classification to a state of ‘moderate drought’.

 

As IPMA explains, at the end of January, there was a decrease in the area of mainland Portugal in the moderate drought class, from 16.2% in December to 2%. There was also a decrease in the weak drought classes from 21.4% to 18.3%, while 36.6% of mainland Portugal was in the moderate rainfall class and 34.6% in normal.

 

The institute classifies its meteorological drought index into nine classes, ranging from “extreme rain” to “extreme drought”.

 

According to IPMA, there are four types of drought: meteorological, agricultural, hydrological and socio-economic.

 

The National Water Resources Information System (SNIRH) reports that as of February 12, 51% of the monitored reservoirs had water available at more than 80% of their total volume and 15% at less than 40%.

 

On the same date, the Barlavento basin was still the one with the least amount of water, only 10.9%, compared to the nationial average of 75.7%.

 

However, even this miserable percentage is an improvement on January, when capacity was only at 9.4%.

 

Data from IPMA’s Climatological Bulletin also indicates that last month was classified as “extremely hot in terms of air temperature and rainy in terms of rainfall”.

 

January 2024 in mainland Portugal was the 3rd warmest since 1931 and the warmest in the last 58 years. It was also exceptionally humid.

 

As for the immediate future, Correio da Manhã has been talking to IPMA’s Bruno Café who suggests more rain is on the way , arriving by tomorrow.

 

Temperatures are going to fall over the course of today, which in the Algarve at least, is very windy. ND

 

Source material: LUSA/ Correio da Manhã