“I need water”. At the edge of his field, where the only shadow is that of the wind turbines, Lars Jonsson, a sprig of barley in his hand, despairs while contemplating the yellowed earth, an unusual sight in this season in eastern Denmark.
Across the northern hemisphere, this early summer has brought extreme weather events, from megafires in Canada to drought in Spain.
In northern Europe, though renowned for its coolness, drought has also set in with its arid soils and the threat of forest fires. Like those that ravaged Sweden in 2018.
“The weather worries me a lot, because it’s very dry at the moment. I check the weather forecast on my phone several times a day in the hope that maybe there will be some rain,” says the Danish farmer.
Here it hasn’t rained since May 23. In the absence of water, his grains are 25% shorter than normal.
According to the European service Copernicus, 89.5% of Danish territory was in a state of drought at the end of May.
“Look, the roots are almost dry”, laments the sexagenarian, pulling up a plant.
Since 1989 he has run a pig and grain farm north of Copenhagen. Part of his barley is sold to the brewer Carlsberg.
“On barley, I will have 30% less harvest because of the drought,” he estimates.
His losses will depend on the price of grain in the fall.
“I hope it will be a little higher for my result to be ok. If he stays at the same level, my result will not be good, ”concludes the farmer, who still does not know if he will have to part with one of his two employees, as was the case in 2018.
Here too, climate change is having its perverse effects felt.
Sunflower in Scandinavia?
” It’s hotter […]. I have to think about what I will put in my fields in the future,” says Lars Jonsson, who also grows rye and wheat in an area where grain irrigation is prohibited.
“Maybe some of the things you have in the fields in France, for example, I could grow them here, sunflowers, or soybeans? “, he advances.
A colleague is also trying the experiment this year on a small plot.
Until now, “drought was not seen as a result of climate change” in Denmark, explains Jens Hesselbjerg, a climatologist at the University of Copenhagen. “The focus was more on extreme rainfall.”
“We knew it was a consequence [ailleurs] but we didn’t think it would happen here,” he sums up.
Drought over almost 90% of Denmark
However, periods without rain are becoming longer and more frequent in the Scandinavian country of 5.9 million inhabitants.
The authorities are increasing calls to save water and not to light a fire.
A little further north, the situation also raises concerns exacerbated by the memory of the vast forest fires in 2018. According to Copernicus, more than half of Finland’s territory is affected by drought and 48.2% of Sweden.
Sweden is experiencing the driest month of June for “10 or 20 years”, estimates the climatologist of the national meteorological institute, Gustav Strandberg.
In neighboring Finland, temperatures flirt with 30 degrees in Helsinki, well above seasonal norms, after a cool start to June.
In the south of the country, precipitation has been scattered and less than normal, sometimes by half.
Norway is also experiencing an unusual drought.
Yet due to climate change, rainfall there has increased overall by around 20% since 1900, according to the Norwegian Environment Agency.
“It rains more but it’s more concentrated, not spread over time as we would need: a lot for a week, then nothing for a month”, analyzes meteorologist Håkon Mjelstad.
The risk of forest fires has been raised to orange level, the highest level, in much of the south and south-east of the country, which has led the fire services to ban the making of fires or barbecues outside the gardens.
“The coming dry summer […], before it was rare,” notes Mr. Mjelstad. “But it will be more and more frequent. Simply because it’s warmer” on the planet.