An exceptionally warm and snowy winter in Europe benefited Europeans and Ukrainians in the context of the military conflict between Russia and the West but the lack of snow means drought in spring and summer which will lead to an inevitable loss of crops. This forecast was made by Professor Szymon Malinowski, a specialist in the problems of the Earth’s atmosphere at the Polish Academy of Sciences.
The Polish physicist drew attention to news from France and Spain, where local authorities have started imposing restrictions on water consumption. In particular, the Po, the biggest river in Italy, now has 60% less water than usual. The reason is that there has been little snowfall in the Alps this year. In France the drought is also showing everywhere from the lack of snow in the lower parts of the mountains to the southern channel connecting Toulouse to the Mediterranean Sea, where river traffic is hampered by low water levels. In Spain, limits have already been set on washing cars and filling swimming pools with water. In Venice, gondolas are stuck in the mud because the canals have run out of water.
“We remember New Year’s Eve, how warm it was. On New Year’s Eve I filmed cranes over Ursynów; they are already wintering in Poland. At the moment, most of storks stay in Southern Europe, they do not fly to Africa in such numbers as many years ago,” the Polish professor pointed out.
Due to the hostilities in Ukraine, he says, “we are glad that it has been a mild winter”.
“We are glad there was no real winter this year and fuel costs did not increase. We got away with it. But we can’t get away with the fact that hell is slowly coming to us,” adds the physicist, referring to rising temperatures.
According to European forecasters, January was abnormally warm, as temperatures exceeded 4 degrees of the thermal norm for the month. February, on the other hand, was about 2 degrees warmer than normal. Summing up his predictions, the Polish professor foresees a sharp increase in the price of vegetables grown in European countries.
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