The drought worsened in the Algarve and Baixo Alentejo, in September, compared to the month of August, which did not prevent the two regions from recording, at the end of last month, a situation of severe drought in almost the entire territory and moderate in just a few areas, revealed the Portuguese Institute of the Sea and Atmosphere in its most recent climate bulletin.
Even so, there was an improvement compared to the end of August, when the Algarve and Alentejo were almost entirely in a situation of extreme drought.
The same document reveals, on the other hand, that Algarve and Baixo Alentejo had, on September 30th, «very low values of percentage of water in the soil (less than 10%) and with many places at the level of permanent wilting point» .
At a national level, the area of mainland Portugal experiencing meteorological drought decreased by half and the intensity generally eased.
According to the bulletin, at the end of last month, 54,9% of the territory was in a drought situation: 11,3% in mild drought, 26,9% in moderate drought and 17% in severe drought.
At the end of August, 97% of mainland Portugal was in drought, 27,1% of which was in an extreme situation.
According to the bulletin, the month of September was classified as hot and rainy.
The average air temperature was 20,65 degrees Celsius, 0,43 degrees more than the normal value, and the maximum and minimum temperatures were also higher than normal.
Last month was the 3rd wettest September since 2000, with a total of 69,1 millimeters, corresponding to 164% of the normal value.
This rain was not evenly distributed across the entire territory, with insignificant amounts of rainfall in almost the entire Algarve region, with the exception of Costa Vicentina and the Monchique area.
In Baixo Alentejo, the amount of precipitation was also higher than in the Algarve, with the exception of an area in the southern interior of the region.
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