标签： Europe

As unrelenting heatwaves blanket much of Western and Central Europe, one of the continent’s most critical waterways has hit historic lows that are already rippling through regional economies and energy systems. The Rhine River, which stretches from the Swiss Alps to the North Sea, has dropped to all-time record low water levels at multiple measuring points in Germany and the Netherlands, according to official monitoring data from both countries. Last week, gauges in Cologne, Germany, and Lobith—where the Rhine crosses the German-Dutch border—recorded depths lower than any seen since systematic record-keeping began.

This extreme water scarcity is not isolated to the Rhine. Other major European river systems that underpin cross-continental transport, power generation and agriculture have also plummeted to near-unprecedented lows. The Danube, which travels through 10 European countries, has dropped to its lowest levels in 30 years across Balkan and Central European sections, while Italy’s longest river, the Po, hit a historic low near Cremona in late July.

Data from the European Union’s Drought Observatories shows that as of mid-July, drought conditions remained stable but critically severe across most of the continent, with dry conditions worsening further in central-western regions. Forecasters project that the renewed heatwave will persist for at least another seven days, pushing temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius across broad swathes of central and southern Europe.

Germany’s National Low Water Information System (NIWIS) reported that by the end of July, 44% of all Rhine monitoring stations and 78% of Danube stations had registered extremely low water levels. As one of Europe’s busiest inland waterways, the Rhine’s falling depths have sparked urgent concerns about widespread economic disruption from restricted shipping. On Friday, water depth at the critical Kaub chokepoint near Koblenz matched the 2018 record low of 25 centimeters, before ticking up slightly over the weekend. The Kaub gauge is a key benchmark for Rhine navigability, as its measurement directly determines how much cargo vessels can safely carry. Extremely low levels here sharply restrict the capacity of inland shipping.

Martin Wolters, a representative of the Rhine Waterways and Shipping Authority, told German public broadcaster WDR that a full suspension of shipping along the river is unlikely, but mandatory precautions will still drive up costs and create supply chain bottlenecks. Vessels must spread cargo across more ships to reduce draft, a change that cuts total transport capacity and increases operational costs. “There comes a time when loads are too small to be worthwhile or vessel owners are worried about damaging their ships,” one commodity trader told Reuters.

The drought has already triggered cascading disruptions to Europe’s energy sector along the Danube. Hungary was forced to shut down its only nuclear power plant last week due to insufficient water for cooling systems, and Prime Minister Peter Magyar confirmed Monday that the timeline for restarting operations remains uncertain. “We don’t know when we will be able to restart [the plant]. We hope that it will happen as soon as possible and we hope that the cooling, liberating rain that the forecasters do not yet see coming will arrive,” Magyar said.

Neighboring countries have also faced energy disruptions: Serbia has reduced output at its coal-fired power plants because of cooling system failures linked to low water levels, while Romania carried out a controlled explosion to clear a large rock from the Danube’s banks to increase water flow to the Cernavoda nuclear power plant.

In Italy, the historic low levels of the Po have forced authorities to raise drought alerts to “high” across the entire Po Valley, with experts warning of potential disruptions to drinking water supplies. Reduced flow at the river’s mouth has also allowed Adriatic saltwater to intrude upstream into the riverbed, disrupting freshwater ecosystems and leaving farmers without usable irrigation water for crops.

While a recent analysis from the World Weather Attribution scientific group found no clear long-term downward trend in rainfall across most of Europe, researchers confirmed that anthropogenic climate change is amplifying drought risk by raising temperatures and increasing evaporation of soil and surface water moisture. Higher temperatures also drive increased demand for freshwater for household, agricultural and industrial use, exacerbating already tight supply. Prolonged drought also lowers lake levels, reducing overall stored freshwater reserves across the continent.

The 2022 European drought, one of the worst on record, contributed to a surge in wildfire activity that pushed carbon emissions well above the 21st century average, according to data from the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.

A devastating combination of prolonged drought and repeated extreme heat waves has pushed the Danube River, one of Europe’s most critical water and energy infrastructure arteries, to historically low water levels, triggering a regional energy crisis that has forced governments across Central and Eastern Europe to implement urgent power conservation measures.

On Monday, water levels at the Danube running through Hungary’s capital Budapest dropped to approximately 10 centimeters (4 inches), a reading far below the previous all-time low of 33 centimeters (13 inches) recorded in 2018. With no substantial rainfall forecast in the coming days or weeks, and a new blistering heat wave bringing daytime temperatures above 38 degrees Celsius (100 degrees Fahrenheit) driving sharp increases in both electricity and water demand, hydrological conditions are not expected to improve any time soon.

The most pressing crisis is unfolding at Hungary’s Paks Nuclear Power Plant, the nation’s single largest source of electricity, which relies on Danube water to cool its four Soviet-built reactors. Now in its 44th year of operation, the facility is teetering on the edge of a total shutdown for the first time in its history. By Monday, successive reactor power reductions had cut output from the plant’s typical 2,000 megawatts to just 240 megawatts.

In a Facebook video posted Monday, Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar announced that engineering teams had successfully kept the plant’s last operating turbine running temporarily, staving off a full shutdown that was projected over the weekend. Magyar noted that a complete power down is still likely to occur as early as Tuesday or Wednesday, but called the temporary reprieve good news, especially amid peak summer energy demand.

Located roughly 90 kilometers (55 miles) south of Budapest, Paks supplies nearly half of Hungary’s total electricity generation and meets around a third of domestic consumption. To offset the massive output gap created by the plant’s reduced operations, Hungary has turned to regional electricity imports and scaled up utilization of renewable energy sources.

Last week, the Hungarian government called on large industrial energy users to cut consumption and asked households to voluntarily reduce power use during peak demand hours between 5 p.m. and 10 p.m. Starting Monday, the government banned electric freight trains from operating during peak hours, a measure expected to save between 70 and 90 megawatt-hours of electricity daily. What began as voluntary conservation became mandatory for large industrial and commercial users after the government issued an official decree Saturday. Magyar reported that the collective effort cut national electricity use by 700 megawatts on Sunday, and thanked Hungarian residents for their cooperation.

The crisis extends far beyond Hungary’s borders, with neighboring Serbia and Romania also grappling with crippling low water levels that have disrupted energy production, shipping, and agricultural activity.

In Romania, the Danube’s water flow has dropped to 1,500 cubic meters per second, less than a third of the average July flow. To redirect water into the Danube’s main channel and secure cooling supplies for the state-owned Cernavoda Nuclear Power Plant, the Romanian military used 180 kilograms (397 pounds) of explosives to clear rock formations near the lower Danube’s Bala Canal on Monday. Authorities have already shut down one reactor unit at Cernavoda, cutting the plant’s total output to half its normal capacity, and warn the second reactor could also be taken offline if water levels do not rise. Romania declared a nationwide energy sector state of alert Friday, and Acting Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan has appealed to citizens to voluntarily cut electricity use during evening peak hours.

In Serbia, record low Danube levels have forced the country’s primary hydroelectric power plant to operate at just 20% of its normal capacity. Prime Minister Djuro Macut convened an emergency energy crisis meeting in Belgrade on Monday, and urged residents to minimize use of high-power household appliances, particularly air conditioning. Over the weekend, Macut described the unfolding situation as “serious and demanding.”

Associated Press correspondents Jovana Gec in Belgrade, Serbia, and Stephen McGrath in Leamington Spa, England contributed reporting to this article.

As Europe confronts one of its most severe summer wildfire emergencies in recent memory, multiple countries are facing expanding blazes, tragic loss of life, and stretched emergency response capacity, with high temperatures and shifting wind patterns keeping authorities on high alert.

On the Greek front, the crisis took a devastating turn Sunday when two firefighting helicopters collided midair while battling a large wildfire burning west of Athens, the nation’s capital. The crash killed two crew members: one Greek national and one Danish firefighter who had been deployed to support Greece’s wildfire response. Two other crew members on the second helicopter — a Greek and a British national — survived with minor injuries and were transported to a local hospital for treatment. The collision occurred near the coastal community of Psatha, where the fire had been raging since Friday morning.

By first light Monday, authorities dispatched 10 additional air assets — five water-dropping planes and five helicopters — to support nearly 500 ground firefighters working to contain the blaze. The collision highlighted the extreme risks facing first responders on the most volatile front of Europe’s wildfire crisis, even as new evacuation orders were issued for three additional communities near Athens in the early hours of Monday as flames pushed deeper into the Attica region. More than 1,000 people have been displaced by the fire so far, including over 250 residents and visitors who were rescued by boat from local beaches as flames reached the coastline.

Greek firefighting authorities announced Sunday that the blaze has been traced to an electrical fault: sparks from a faulty power line connecting a private wind generator facility to the national grid triggered the fire. Two people have already been arrested in connection with the incident, including an electrical engineer who oversaw the project’s design and a contractor who worked on the transmission line. Both face felony arson charges, and an arrest warrant has also been issued for the owner of the wind generator company.

For Greece, large summer wildfires are a recurring annual disaster. Hot, dry conditions combined with frequent strong winds create ideal conditions for small sparks to escalate into major infernos. Officials note that more than 90% of the hundreds of wildfires the country fights each year stem from human negligence, as common risk mitigation measures such as bans on open-air barbecues, welding, and the use of power saws in dry forest areas are regularly ignored. In a separate incident Sunday, authorities on the Greek island of Kefalonia arrested a man on suspicion of deliberately starting a wildfire that forced the evacuation of multiple nearby villages.

A shift in conditions on Monday brought a small measure of hope: the gale-force winds that had fanned the flames and grounded water-dropping aircraft through the weekend began to die down, allowing crews to resume aerial attacks on the blaze and create new firebreaks to slow its advance. But officials warn that the entire Attica region remains at extreme wildfire risk, with forecasts calling for a new round of rising temperatures later this week.

The wildfire crisis is not limited to Greece. Across Western Europe, France is grappling with the largest wildfire in its modern history, which has already forced what officials describe as the largest peacetime civilian evacuation in the country’s history. Some 224,000 people have been displaced by the Gironde megablaze in southwestern France, which has already burned through 420 square kilometers of land — an area roughly four times the size of the city of Paris. While firefighters managed to contain the blaze within its existing perimeter by Sunday night, dozens of hotspots continue to burn inside the fire zone, and thousands of displaced residents remain unable to return to their homes. Nearly 3,000 French firefighters are deployed to battle this blaze and a second major wildfire burning in the Provence region.

When combined with large-scale blazes in Spain, wildfires across Western and Southern Europe have displaced roughly 350,000 people from their homes and summer vacation sites, emptying communities during the peak tourism season and stretching emergency response services across multiple simultaneous disasters.