Almost half of EU countries suffering from drought PHOTO

Prolonged hot and dry weather leaves EU countries grappling with withering harvests, lowered energy production and emergency water handouts, just as the war in Ukraine prompts a spike in food and energy prices.

Almost half of European Union land is currently under a drought warning or more severe "alert" level, hampering agriculture, energy production and water supply, the European Commission has confirmed, Sky News reports.  

From France in the west and Romania in the east to western Germany and southern Greece, a "wide and persistent" lack of rain, combined with heatwaves, makes for an alarmingly long list of countries where drought is getting worse.

New data from the European Drought Observatory (EDO) shows some 45% of the bloc's territory under "warning" conditions, the second of three drought categories, during the 10 days leading to 20 July.

Meanwhile, 15% of the land has moved into the most severe "alert" state, meaning not only is land drying out after low rain, but plants and crops are impaired too.

The figures show little improvement from the previous 10-day period, which saw 46% of the land at the "warning" level with dried-out soil, and 13% in "alert" territory.

Further dry weather forecasts for many countries in August and September "add concerns to the already very critical situation and, if confirmed, will exacerbate drought severity and the impacts on agriculture, energy and water supply", EDO warned in July.

France's worst drought on record has left parched villages without safe drinking water, farmers warning of a milk shortage in winter and corn harvests on course to be 18.5% lower than last year.

Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne's office on Friday set up a crisis team as the country braced for its fourth heatwave of the summer.

"Widespread stress on vegetation" has hit the Italian lowlands, much of France, central Germany, eastern Hungary, Portugal and northern Spain, the EDO said, just as Europeans grapple with higher food prices as a result of the war in Ukraine.