Every day, the correspondents’ club describes how the same current event is illustrated in two countries.
France is currently experiencing a historic winter drought. The Minister for Ecological Transition, Christophe Béchu, invited, on Monday February 27, the basin coordinating prefects to issue water restriction orders “right now” to anticipate possible crisis situations during the summer. Turkey is also suffering from a lack of water due to a drop in rainfall. As for India, the country has just experienced the hottest month of February in its history, which raises fears of an even hotter summer than that of 2022.
Lack of water in Turkey
Turkey meets for the first time on Friday March 3 its committee of experts on natural disasters. One thinks of course of the earthquakes in this region of the world. They will also be at the heart of this first meeting, but floods and drought are also included in the remit of this council. Despite its lakes, despite the Tigris and the Euphrates and its multiple dams, Turkey suffers from a lack of water. The weather is abnormally mild and dry across the country.
Between October and January, precipitation fell by 31% compared to the same period last year. Desperately empty tanks and photos of cracked floors multiply in the press. The map published by the Turkish meteorological services is instructive in this respect. In its forecast for the year, almost the entire country appears in black, red or bright yellow, ranging from “abnormally dry” To “exceptionally dry”. And the worst would be to come in the next three months. Despite the expected rainfall over the next few days and the hope that the melting snow will somewhat feed the dams.
India experiences hottest February on record
More than 30 degrees in northern India in February, and no rain for the whole month: these are the ingredients that contributed to making this month the hottest on record by the authorities. The month of February is generally quite cool, especially in the north, which then slowly emerges from the winter of December-January, when temperatures drop close to 0 degrees. But this year, it seems that we are almost entering summer in February: the national average temperatures last month were 29.5 degrees, or 1.7 degrees above seasonal norms. The main reason is the lack of rain: India received 68% less rainfall in February than normal.
The Indian Meteorological Agency is predicting a lack of rainfall in the coming months, which will warm the atmosphere and cause major heat waves in central and northern India.