The fact that there is a little less rain in March than in other months is not that unusual. In the late winter, blocking high-pressure weather patterns often form over Europe, keeping rain or snow clouds away from the Atlantic. Of the approximately 30 blockings that occur on average each year in the northern hemisphere, most occur at the end of winter or in spring. A Scandinavia high then builds up particularly frequently, which ensures an omega position. It was the same this year.
The great drought in March has an impact on the risk of forest fires. In many places there are forest or wildfires, the fire brigades are on the alert. On the forest fire risk map of the German Weather Service, large parts of the country glow red, where the second highest risk level 4 prevails. The reason for the high risk of fire is not just the drought. In early spring, the ground is still covered with a layer of litter from the previous year. These are old leaves or grass that dry out very quickly if there is no rain for a long time. From April and May, fresh, lush grass grows over the dry layer and usually banishes the risk of forest fires again.
The soil is still wet
However, farmers are not yet worried about the drought. “The winter was wet enough to saturate the ground with water,” says agricultural meteorologist Andreas Brömser from the German Weather Service in Braunschweig. So the floors are still well filled, even if they are already very dry in the upper ten centimeters, he says. So far, evaporation has played a subordinate role, so there have been no problems so far. On the contrary, in the first half of March, farmers are basically even happy about stable, dry weather because they can drive into the fields with their heavy machines without compacting the soil. Because this winter, February was particularly wet. It would only become critical in agriculture if the drought persisted in April, says Andreas Brömser. By then, most plants are already green, sucking water out of the soil and increasing evaporation rates. The summer grain in particular would eventually run into problems because it only has thin roots.
However, a drought, as has been the case in previous years, would be particularly inconvenient this year because the EU will probably have to forego imports from Ukraine. There is also a risk of crop failures in Spain, Portugal and North Africa. There it rained significantly less than usual in the winter half-year, and the year is threatening to be one of the driest since 1961, according to the Spanish weather service Aemet. Many reservoirs are therefore not even half full; by February, long-forgotten ghost villages had reappeared in the pools. In Portugal, too, it has rained far too little, and in some areas there is an extreme drought. Morocco is also struggling with drought, and this year’s grain and vegetable harvest could be particularly poor. Winter rain is so important in the Mediterranean because there is hardly any rain during the summer months. However, the situation eased somewhat in many places in March. A low-pressure area has curled up over the Iberian Peninsula, bringing heavy rain to the east coast in particular. It had to avoid the thick high over Central Europe to the southwest.