Large swathes of Spain hit by severe drought

Large sections of Spain are experiencing extreme or prolonged drought, with rainfall this winter at only one-third of the average in recent years. Low water levels in reservoirs have now revealed villages abandoned when valleys were flooded for hydroelectric dams.

In the last three months of 2021, Spain recorded just 35% of the average rainfall it had seen during the same period from 1981 to 2010, but there has been almost no rain since then. January was the second driest of this century, only surpassed by Jan. 2005, according to Spain's national weather service. Spain plans to use over 570 million euros in European Union pandemic recovery funds to make its irrigation systems more efficient.