Recently we have heard a lot about the current drought in Spain and Italy. Rainfalls are missing and rivers are dry. But how are we doing in Baden-Wurttemberg? While its definitely not as severe as in other parts of Europe, some areas are also missing lots of winter precipitation.

The plot shows how much water is missing relative to the average which fell 1990-2020 (aka last climate normal period) since 1. November 2022. We can see that especially in the blackforest (mid-south yellow/orange point cluster), deficits are up to 100 mm missing rain/snow. This is a worying sign towards this summer as normaly in winter, groundwater is recharged and snow accumulates tofeed the streams when melting.

This post is part of my water science communication series #waterwednesday where I weekly post short researchfindings or just stuff that interests me