European ‘extreme weather belt’ linked to worst drought since 2003

Severe droughts that stretched across a central European band this summer are consistent with climate models for a warming continent, experts say

A swathe of central Europe has suffered the most severe drought since 2003 in what EU climate experts see as a harbinger of climate changes to come.

Rainless weeks and relentless heat desiccated a vast tract of central European land separating the continent's drier south from its wetter north between 1 April and 31 July, according to a report by the European drought observatory (EDO).