#yoorslocalnews
The usually rainy months, November and December, last year, did not bring the much needed water to mainland Portugal . They started a worrying tendency which lasted until mid March 2022. By then , our country was already suffering from drought, very extreme in the more southern areas (south of Lisbon and all the way to Algarve).

The March/April rain is very much needed and very much desired. There have been a few scattered days of rain in the last two weeks, which have helped minimize the situation in the north of Portugal, but the center-south regions are still very dry and in desperate need of water. Specialists are afraid that 2022 may become one of the driest years in mainland Portugal.

Ironic, isn't it, that we live on the edge of water and still we have water shortage...  This affects  the water levels everywhere, the land, the pastures that animals feed on, the temperature levels in big cities...

The picture below was released by Portuguese Institute of Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA) in January 2022; at one end of the scale is "heavy rain" (in blue) - on the other end of the scale is "extreme drought" (maroon). You can see how the country has no blue areas on the map.

It has happened before, it has happened again in 2021/2022, and this is a dangerous repetition. This is of course a sign of climate change. It should worry many more people than just specialists and farmers, it is a warning that if we don't change things on a global level, droughts will be the norm and not the exception; with all the horrible side-effects that we now witness magnified a hundred times or more...