The Portuguese Environment Agency (APA) say December was the driest on record, with Portugal experiencing rainfall that was “just 12% of the average value” recorded between 1981 and 2010.
The lowest rainfall value was recorded in Portimão, in Algarve, with just 1.7 millimetres during December 2024.
The records also show that, at the end of December, 55% of the mainland was in a “weak and moderate” meteorological drought and that, in the last decade, there has been less and less rain in the last month of the year, a trend that was only not seen in 2022 and which is being accompanied by an increase in temperature.
As for water reserves in reservoirs, APA data indicate that they are at 71% of total capacity, a figure that represents “a slight reduction compared to the 74% recorded in the same period” in 2023.
The Sado river basins - Monte da Rocha (11%) and Campilhas (20%) - and Arade - Bravura (13%) and Arade (16%) - are those that had dams in a “critical state” in December, with capacity equal to or less than 20%.
In the Algarve, one of the regions of the country where the effects of the drought have been most felt and where restrictions on water consumption have already been applied, the six main reservoirs “accumulate 151 cubic hectometres of stored water, corresponding to 34% of the total capacity”, a figure that reflects an “increase of 39 cubic hectometres compared to the same period last year”.
“Despite this increase, the western Algarve and the Arade basin remain in extreme hydrological drought,” warned the APA source, clarifying that the east is only marginally better off, “in severe hydrological drought.”
With an additional 39 cubic hectometres stored in dams in December, compared to the same month in 2023, the Algarve is in a “better” situation and has “water reserves for a year of urban consumption”, in the event that no more rain is recorded by then, assured the APA source.
Source APA
