‘The new normal’: how Europe is being hit by a climate-driven drought crisis

Water shortages across the continent, from France through Italy, Spain and beyond, are creating a critical situation

Europe's most severe drought in decades is hitting homes, factories, farmers and freight across the continent, as experts warn drier winters and searing summers fuelled by global heating mean water shortages will become the new normal".

The EU European Drought Observatory has calculated that 45% of the bloc's territory was under drought warning by mid-July, with 13% already on red alert, prompting the European Commission to warn of a critical" situation in multiple regions.