The Minister of Agriculture is asking livestock producers to identify "the needs for investment in water collection and transport and acquisition of equipment for watering livestock", given the "probable evolution to a situation of agrometeorological and hydrological drought".
In an order published on Tuesday, Minister Capoulas Santos also instructed the Regional Directorates of Agriculture and Fisheries to, «until the 15th and 30th of each month, report on the evolution of the drought situation in the respective regions, indicating the characterization of the current situation and evolution of private water resources, pastures and fodder, permanent and temporary crops».
These measures come after a very dry and warmer than usual month of March, which led to "a significant water deficit in the mainland's territory", according to the Portuguese Institute of the Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA).
"During March 2019, with the exception of the period between 5 and 7, there were no significant amounts of precipitation and, associated with this occurrence, very low values of relative humidity were recorded, especially from the 15th onwards" , describes the IPMA.
The situation worsened between the 26th and 28th of March, a period in which "extremely low relative humidity values were recorded, below 15%, in almost the entire territory, including the northern and central coastal regions". On the other hand, the wind from the east was intensified «blowing at times strong, with gusts of the order of 60-70 km/h».
These meteorological conditions “in themselves favor a rapid spread of rural fires as well as a rapid dryness of the fine fuels found in the topsoil and which is evident in the values of the fine fuel moisture index and the spread index initial fire».
“The FWI (Fire Weather Index) weather index of forest fire hazard is a good indicator of the severity of weather conditions relative to fire intensity. The exceptionality of the FWI values for this time of year is evidenced by the FWI percentile value, for example on the 27th of March, where the highest values are found in the regions of Minho, Douro Litoral, Litoral Centro (where the highest number was recorded of fire occurrences in the last days of March) and in the Algarve», added the IPMA.
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