Heat in Europe drains rivers and threatens crops

18 августа 2022
The Loire Valley in France, with its famous chateaux, is suffering from a heat wave: the famous vines are dying and farmers are in panic. The rapid drop in the river's level has stopped not only the cargo traffic, even the tourists' flat-bottomed ferries can’t be used. The fish perish in mass: shallow water is destructive for them. The authorities had to release two large reservoirs upstream, but even that keeps the volume of the river flow equal to 40 cubic meters per second, which is 20 times less than the norm. 

The Rhine is blocked by a ship that ran aground

And the German Rhine, the traffic on which can already stop at any moment, is blocked by a Dutch ship near the town of Bingen. It is not yet clear how long the traffic on the river will be paralyzed. The Rhine is Germany's main traffic artery: the river is used to deliver fuel for power plants and motor gasoline to the interior of the country.