It’s a very sad record: that of the lowest rainfall rates in summer. While Météo France predicts, on a national scale, that “July 2022 will most likely be the driest July on record since 1958”, the Dordogne is not spared. The month that has just passed ranks in the top 3 driest behind July 2020 and just ahead of July 1986, “within a few millimeters” specify the forecasters.
Specificity of these three months of July, two and 36 years apart: “there was less than 10 millimeters of rain in all months”, specifies Météo France. This year, it is in Périgord Noir that the drought strikes the most, while the North of the department is the one that recorded the most humidity.
“Saved” by the month of June
“We were lucky, despite the heat of this month of July, that the minimum temperatures remained correct with a little dew”, blow the forecasters, who also specify that the month of June and its storms (sometimes hail) fed the soil and made it possible to postpone the transition to a state of drought in the department by a few weeks.
According to forecasters, August should not be very different from the previous one in the Dordogne. It begins in the heat, with a return to temperatures above 30 degrees in the shade in the afternoon. Visibility over the coming weeks is poor, but the statistics from Météo France do not send signals in favor of a return of rain.