Danger of drought

METEOROLOGISTS in France issued a warning about drought on Wednesday, February 22, after the country recorded its driest winter in more than 60 years.

France is currently facing one of its driest spells of winter weather with 32 consecu­ tive days without rain, in what has been one of the country’s driest winters on record, since 1959. The dry winter follows the hottest summer on record which was registered last year by the national weather agency, Météo­France.

Meteorologists and ecological experts called a meeting in response to the news to discuss policy region by region in an attempt to avert drought later in the year when the country sees the effect of the reduced rainfall on the water supply.

Hot temperatures were suffered by several countries in Europe last summer including Spain and Italy, where

A NEW report released by the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) on Tuesday, February 21 has forecast a sharp recovery of the business travel sector following the pandemic. The European business travel sector was one of the worst hit areas of the whole travel industry during the pandemic, due to the transition to online work and the axing of business trips for the whole of 2020 and much of 2021. But now, the GBTA says that western European countries are in the best position to recover pre­pandemic business travel spending as drought conditions were also reported. Countries have grappled with resolving their drought issues over the winter which in many cases, has been drier than expected.

France’s dry winter follows a summer blighted by drought in many regions of the country.