Monitoring meteorological drought impacts supports policy measures that target, among others, greenhouse gas removals and the adaptation of ecosystems to climate change. In 2022, Europe experienced its hottest summer and second warmest year on record, and consequently the largest overall drought impacted area: over 630,000km2 as opposed to the 167,000km2 annual average impacted area between 2000 and 2022. Between 2000 and 2022 there is an increasing trend in drought-impacted areas in the EU. Drought impacts may increase further if global mitigation and EU and national adaptation strategies are not effectively implemented.

Figure 1. Annual area of drought impact on vegetation productivity for 2000-2022, EU-27 (km²)
YEARCroplandForest and woodlandGrasslandUrbanHeathland and shrubSparsely vegetated landInland wetlands
2000655506852415774627473571791328
20012797640949561625292710118743
2002497783934586853191329811671127
20031618781632716650122348197912682756
200445501382316249677673145
20051052817576218974568517489137249
200640365723147260365324364533082
200741452257255739287523411097146
200812214118862134131756071193138
200932754234557331158078201122937
2010675513017182158615123661296
201160794391831345958202881695643
20121910671174754247617509252092403458
2013221645221330349985151456
20141200712728367413605024305714
2015597713592417602955730384051546
201626466259475311274584548871001
20176950660711129277219783532631293
2018135931857083980122597306210295041
2019136966112556492201848750889822320
20209804579441378362159715355642041
202117122270402514169049579702077
202232779515227394281374121401237981648

Drought impact hampers nature's ability to deliver a wide range of environmental, social and economic benefits. They impact the EU’s ability to achieve its climate change mitigation objective through decreasing carbon sequestration, and influence adaptation and the implementation of the EU biodiversity and soil strategies. Viable food production, sustainable management of natural resources and balanced territorial development, and long-term objectives of the EU Common Agriculture Policy are also affected by drought via decreasing soil moisture. It is therefore important that the EU takes action to decrease the severity of impacts and strengthen ecosystem resilience against climate change related droughts. 

Europe experienced its hottest summer and second warmest year on record in 2022 with 631,000km2 under drought impact (Figure 1, dashboard). This is an almost five-fold increase compared to the annual impact during 2000-2022, when ca. 167,000km2 (4.2%) of EU land was affected every year by droughts due to low precipitation, high evaporation and heatwaves fuelled by climate change. The annual extent of intense drought impacts in the EU, of which six years were in the last decade, shows an increasing trend (Figure 1, dashboard) as a contributing factor to worsening ecosystem conditions

During 2000-2022, the annual impacted area of EU cropland was around 73,000km2 (ca. 5% of cropland, dashboard), contributing to crop failures. The average annual impacted area in forests was 56,000km2 (ca. 4% of forests). Forests and woodlands sequester large amounts of carbon, but drought conditions slow this process. Grasslands and wetlands are among the most biodiverse areas in the EU, storing a large amount of carbon in the below ground biomass pool. When soil moisture is in deficit, this carbon is gradually released. The average annual drought impact on grassland was around 20,000km2 (ca. 5% of grasslands) comparable to the area of Slovenia. In absolute values the annual impacted wetland area was less than 2% of EU wetland. Here an increasing trend can be observed which contributes to CO2 emissions due to lower-than-normal ground water levels.

By 2030 the frequency and intensity of heatwaves is projected to increase whereas in the continental and Mediterranean regions summer precipitation is projected to decrease . Based on this and the current trends, drought impacted areas may not decrease by 2030. It is important that land management practices (e.g. cultivating drought tolerant and cover crops and leaving crop residuals on the ground) are adequately adjusted in a timely manner to mitigate future impacts of droughts and that EU and national adaptation strategies are effectively implemented.

Figure 2. Drought impact area during 2022 in comparison to the 2000-2020 average drought impact, in % of the country territory (EEA-38 region)
CountryLong term average impact2022 impact
Luxembourg8.671.7
Belgium4.653.4
Slovenia4.352.4
France3.542.3
Portugal6.434.8
Croatia5.228
Hungary421.9
Slovakia3.620.7
Germany4.319
Italy3.317.6
Denmark2.315.2
Netherlands2.914.8
Romania414.7
Spain4.79.3
Austria3.79
Poland4.68.8
Estonia67.1
Czechia4.57.1
Ireland0.25.3
Bulgaria5.44.7
Greece3.24.5
Sweden1.83.8
Finland2.13.2
Cyprus8.32.1
Latvia4.61.4
Malta81
Lithuania5.90
Bosnia and Herzegovina4.547.5
Montenegro325.5
Serbia415.7
Albania2.215.4
Switzerland2.715.1
Kosovo*1.811.1
Türkiye3.18.5
North Macedonia1.42.9
Liechtenstein2.82.6
Norway0.92.5
Iceland0.51.9

In most EU Member States, the 2022 drought impacted area was much larger than the 2000-2020 average impacted area (Figure 2). The largest impacts in 2022 occurred in Belgium, Luxembourg and Slovenia. Drought affected as much as 70% of Luxembourg's area in 2022, much above the annual average impacted area during 2000-2020 which was around 20% (Figure 2). Drought impacted above 50% of the territories in Belgium and Slovenia, much above the long-term average (below 10% of the territory). In 2022, drought was also dominant in France and Portugal impacting over 35% of the countries' area, while in Croatia almost 30% was impacted. In all these countries the 2022 drought largely exceeded the long-term average impacted area.

From the non-EU region, Bosnia and Herzegovina (47% of the country) and Montenegro (25% of the area) experienced highest impact in 2022.

The trend of drought-impacted areas as well as in the number of impacted countries continue to increase in the Member States and in the non-EU member and cooperating countries of the European Environment Agency (see dashboard).