The drought of 2018

The summer of 2018 was exceptionally dry and warm resulting in a strong increase in the evaporation, leading to water shortage for agricultural crops, industry and historical low water levels in the major river system, severely hampering ship traffic. The spatial impact of the drought in western Europe over the summer months is clearly visible in this comparison of the two images below. Left is the average satellite image of the last week of July from 2000 to 2017. Right is a satellite image of the last week of July in 2018.