France in crisis as drought deepens, with hottest April in over a century

By Gerard Bon, Marie Maitre, and Sybille de La Hamaide; editing by Anthony Barker
16 May 2011 PARIS (Reuters) – France has imposed limits on water consumption in 28 of its 96 administrative departments, the environment ministry said Monday, amid signs that a prolonged dry spell that has hit grain crops would continue. “We are already in a situation of crisis. The situation is like what we would expect in July for groundwater levels, river flows and snow melting,” Environment Minister Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet told a press conference. The government had previously put 27 departments under water consumption limits, and Kosciusko-Morizet said Monday that similar measures could be extended to three more — effectively affecting a third of the country. One of the hottest and driest Aprils on record in France has parched farmland and cut water reserves, stoking worries of a drought similar to that experienced in 1976 and fuelling concern harvests will suffer in the European Union’s top grain producer. No substantial rainfall is expected in the next two weeks, weather expert Michele Blanchard told Monday’s press conference. In an interview with Reuters Insider, Meteo France forecaster Michel Daloz said that temperatures would also rise sharply in the next week, boosting groundwater evaporation. “It would really need a miracle, which is three weeks of heavy rain after the coming 8-10 days (of a dry spell), to hope to make up for some of the deficit,” Daloz said. Total rainfall in April amounted to barely 29 percent of the average established over the 1971-2000 period, the ministry said in a report, adding that soils in the northern part of the country were experiencing the driest conditions in 50 years. … France has lost any prospect of a very good wheat crop this year as the lack of water hit plants at an advanced development stage, but the French farm office said last week it was too early to translate drought-related worries into yield loss numbers. …

France in crisis as drought deepens –minister

May 9 (RFI) – France has just experienced its hottest April since 1900, with average temperatures four degrees higher than normal for the time of year, while over the last 4 months, less than half the usual amount of rainfall for the period has fallen, according to the French meteorological office. In Caen and Beauvais in the north of the country, only two millimetres of rain fell in April, compared to the usual 50 millimetres at this time of year. Elsewhere its the same story, apart from in the Mediterranean coastal areas. Persistant anti-cyclones in the North Sea, around the British Isles and France, are preventing rain from falling on France. On Friday, 17 counties in France imposed water restrictions, in a bid to limit the effects of the drought. … Jean Michel Rambault raises cattle in western France, “I’ve never seen anything like it”, he remarks, “If we don’t get any rain in the next three weeks, it will become very difficult. The pastures are parched in some parts, when they should be green at this time of year. There’s not enough grass for the animals to eat. We are having to give them hay”. …

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