Nine European countries beat August drought record: AFP analysis

Nine European countries experienced their driest August on record as a sweltering summer supercharged by climate change scorched the continent, according to an AFP analysis of figures from the European Drought Observatory.

Not since the EDO began collecting such data in 2012 have Austria, Belgium, Bosnia, France, Hungary, Luxembourg, Serbia, Slovakia or Switzerland seen a more parched August, the EDO figures show.

On average, 58 percent of the European Union's territory, or nearly 2.5 million square kilometres (under a million square miles), was affected by a lack of water in August.

That is 25 percentage points higher than the 2012-2025 average for the month, but still short of the record of 63 percent seen in August 2022.

Central Europe was the worst-affected region, with two-thirds of Hungary and a third of Slovakia and Serbia under the EDO's highest drought alert warning in August.

Based on satellite observations, the EDO's drought alert takes into account three parameters: precipitation, soil humidity and the state of vegetation.

According to a study by the Climameter scientific consortium published on Thursday, "a three-month dry spell as severe as the June-August 2026 European drought is now roughly three times more likely to occur than it was in the past (1950-1987)."

"When similar weather patterns form today, the resulting conditions are significantly drier than they would be in a world without climate change."