Almost 80% of the mainland in severe drought extreme in late July – Daily News – Lisbon

Severe or extreme drought affected since 79% of the mainland in late July, according to the Portuguese Institute of Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA), who admits that the situation will intensify given the time of year.

The last climatological IPMA bulletin further indicates that the remaining 21% of the country were in dry low to moderate.

On July 31, according to the weather index PDSI dry, which takes into account the data on the amount of precipitation, air temperature and water holding capacity in the soil, the drought remained in all the territory, verifying a slight increase in drought class severe and extreme from the previous month.

“Given the time of year, it is expected that the weather drought will persist or intensify,” says the IPMA.

July was a hot and dry month with values average temperature of around 23.2 degrees higher than normal, and the maximum temperature of around 30.4 degrees, the ninth highest figure since 1931 and the fifth highest since 2000.