7.1 News about Drought in NL

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Climate risks and water scarcity are the most acute for the Netherlands

NOS News • 14 May 2024

Climate change is already causing major risks in the Netherlands and this will only increase in the future. This is what the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL) says in a new climate report on Tuesday, the 14th of May 2024.

 

The climate is changing

NOS News

Large parts of Europe are once again experiencing a sweltering summer. There are also weather extremes in other parts of the world, such as in the US and around Antarctica. The most important stories about climate change and research at a glance. For more stories see.

 

Neerslagtekort in korte tijd fors opgelopen, 'recordjaar 1976 in zicht'

Precipitation deficit increased sharply in a short time, 'record year 1976 in sight'

NOS News • 14 June 2023

Het neerslagtekort in Nederland is de afgelopen weken fors opgelopen. Na het natte voorjaar heeft het in heel Nederland sinds half mei nauwelijks meer geregend. "Als het zo droog blijft, bereiken we over ongeveer een week het niveau van recordjaar 1976", zegt Frank Selten van het KNMI.

"Het neerslagtekort stijgt sneller dan normaal. Er is heel veel verdamping door de felle zon. Maar de verdamping gaat ook harder als het waait en als de lucht droog is. Al die ingrediënten zijn aanwezig, dus dan gaat het heel hard."

No official warm day before May for first time since 1997

The Netherlands hasn’t had an official warm day - when thermometers hit 20 degrees Celsius in De Bilt - yet this year and the forecast doesn’t see it happening soon. “This makes it the first time this century that we will not have an official warm day before the month of May.”

27 APRIL 2023 - Credit: NL Times

Grote kans op schade aan huizen lijkt streep te zetten door extra waterwinning Hammerflier

A high risk of damage to houses seems to be undermined by extra water extraction in Hammerflier

NOS News • 29 March 2023

A reference to Drinking water, drought, Twente, risk analysis, Vitens, Province Overijssel.

 

New Drought situation of map of the Netherlands has been published by AgriWatch

New Drought situation of map of the Netherlands for 28 August to 13 September 2022 has been published by AgriWatch. For more information please see this link.

The national average precipitation deficit - Snapshot

There is less and less water available for agriculture, nature and shipping. This is the conclusion of the National Water Distribution Coordination Committee of the Water Management Center in the Netherlands in its latest update of the national drought monitor.

The national average precipitation deficit on 17 September 2022 is 279 mm, according to KNMI.

Precipitation shortage continues to rise

KNMI reported that the precipitation deficit is expected to increase further in the coming days, with a heatwave on the way. In the figure below it is shown that 2022 is one of the 5 driest years since 1906, but that the absolute drought record (dating from 1976) remains out of sight for the time being. Then the precipitation deficit rose to 362 millimetres on September 1.

Precipitation Shortage / Drought in the Netherlands (according to KNMI Neerslagtekort / Droogte).

For more info about the KNMI precipitation surplus see: https://www.agriwatch.nl/knowledge-center/continuous-potential-precipitation-surplus

For the definition of Heatwave see here.

Also see other news and reports here.

 

One of the warmest, sunniest and driest summers

August 31, 2022, KNMI

As reported by KNMI, This summer was the third warmest since 1901, the start of our measurements. Only 2018 and 2003 were warmer. It was also extremely sunny and dry. The picture of this summer fits in with that of the changing climate: sunny and warm summers with an erratic precipitation pattern in which drought and wet summers alternate.

This is a preliminary overview. Read the full (provisional) overview of summer 2022.

 

NOS News • 12 August 2022

Blue-green algae at more and more swimming spots due to the warmer summers. Due to drought, pollutants in rivers and lakes become more concentrated.

People seeking to cool off in natural water this week (hot and dry summer days) should keep an eye out for blue-green algae, the public works department Rijkswaterstaat warned. The algae (plankton species) are sometimes visible as a blue or green layer on the surface of the water but are often also in the water without being visible. Contact with blue-green algae can cause skin irritations, headaches, and intestinal and stomach problems, according to NOS (https://nos.nl/artikel/2440281-blauwalg-bij-steeds-meer-zwemplekken-door-de-warmere-zomers ). Figures from the Rijkswaterstaat show that the number of places with blue-green algae continues to increase in the coming years because of the persistently high temperatures.

Question

What environmental conditions are needed for algae growth?

Research is done by a group of scientists (See https://www.researchgate.net/publication/221901045_Summer_heatwaves_promote_blooms_of_harmful_cyanobacteria ), relatively high summer water temperature also favoured the blue-green algal blooms and resulted in a high concentration of organic matter. They reported on a lake experiment (Lake Nieuwe Meer which is a recreational lake in the city of Amsterdam) where intermittent artificial mixing failed to control blooms of the harmful cyanobacterium Microcystis during the summer of 2003, one of the hottest summers ever recorded in Europe. To understand this failure, they develop a coupled biological-physical model investigating how competition for light between buoyant cyanobacteria, diatoms, and green algae in eutrophic lakes is affected by the meteorological conditions of this extreme summer heatwaves. Their model consists of a phytoplankton competition model coupled to a one-dimensional hydrodynamic model, driven by meteorological data. The model predicts that high temperatures favour cyanobacteria directly, through increased growth rates. Moreover, high temperatures also increase the stability of the water column, thereby reducing vertical turbulent mixing, which shifts the competitive balance in favour of buoyant cyanobacteria. Through these direct and indirect temperature effects, in combination with reduced wind speed and reduced cloudiness, summer heatwaves boost the development of harmful cyanobacterial blooms.

 

NOS News • 10 Aug 2022

The Netherlands is 'bursting with water', but how do we hold on to that, according to NOS.

Question

Water management should be much more focused on water retention. Is this the solution? How about the Balance (a good distribution of water and paying for the environment as well as downstream, rivers, and the sea)?

Forest rangers and biologists see the consequences of drought

2022 looks set to be an extremely dry year. Another warm period is expected this week and biologist Arnold van Vliet and forester Joris Hellevoort are afraid of irreparable damage to nature. See:

https://nos.nl/video/2439833-boswachter-en-bioloog-zien-gevolgen-droogte-dit-sterft-helemaal-af

 
 

Due to the persistent drought, there has officially been a water shortage in the Netherlands since 3rd August 2022 (according to NOS). Most citizens will not notice this shortage for the time being, but the shortage of water is obvious along rivers and in nature. See the Eight photos that give an idea of ​​the drought in the Netherlands.

 

As of today, the national Water Shortage Management Team (MTW) ​​determines how scarce water is distributed in the Netherlands. Due to the ongoing drought, there is now a "de facto water shortage", says Minister Harbers of Infrastructure and Water Management (3rd August 2022). On July 13, we scaled up to level 1 (impending water shortage) and now to level 2 (actual water shortage). The drought is caused by the high evaporation rate in the Netherlands and the low supply of water from abroad via the rivers. What exactly those measures entail is still unclear.

How are the levels determined?

The National Water Distribution Coordination Committee looks at water levels, evaporation and consumption and determines whether the demand exceeds the supply of water of suitable quality. If so, there is a shortage.

In order to provide clarity, a kind of alarm system has been created since 2015, to prevent authorities from taking all kinds of ad hoc decisions to save water. There are (besides the normal situation without imminent shortage) three levels:

Tier 1: Impending water shortage (which was in effect since July 13)

Level 2: Actual water shortage (since today)

Level 3: National crisis

The latter situation does not often occur in the Netherlands. The last time was in 2003, when the energy supply was at risk. That will not happen so quickly now, expects drought expert Niko Wanders (Utrecht University), because measures have been taken since then to deal with this.

 

NOS News • 3 Aug. 2022

Official water shortage: from now on a national crisis team will distribute the scarce water. see here for Dutch.

Drought at least until the end of August

The weather forecast is not favourable. Marco Nolet of the KNMI explained on the 3rd of August at a press conference. Hardly any precipitation is expected in the next two weeks: 40 to 50 millimeters in the most favorable case. "But that is far too little, because the evaporation is much greater."

There is an average precipitation deficit of 220 millimeters across the country. Normally there is a shortage of about 100 millimeters in the summer. It could only start to rain heavily again in the second half of August, but that too is not enough to solve the problem. Nolet: "The drought will certainly continue to play a major role until the end of August."

According to Bart Vonk, the chairman of the National Water Distribution Coordination Committee (LCW), a lot has been done recently to retain water for longer. Our starting position is therefore better than in 2018, when there was an even greater precipitation deficit. The major problem is that the Rhine supplies much less fresh water, more than 50 percent less than normal.

Bubble screen against salt water

This can lead to salinization of the soil, especially in the west of the country, because salty seawater flows inland. "That is why we are taking into account that we will set up a bubble screen at Diemen against the salinization of the Amsterdam-Rhine Canal," said Vonk. A bubble screen is a large tube with holes that lies at the bottom of the channel. Air is blown through the holes, causing air bubbles. They should stop the salt water.

Another measure that is being considered is limiting the inlet of water from the IJsselmeer. This forms the most important freshwater buffer and is very important for water management in the east and north of the country.

Being frugal is not an obligation

Michèle Blom of Rijkswaterstaat is the chair of the Water Shortage Management Team, which will now meet regularly. She repeated the call to citizens to be economical with water, but she cannot make it mandatory. "I'm making this call now, and I honestly see no reason for people to ignore it."

It is the fifth time this century that there has been a water shortage in the Netherlands. Previously this happened in 2003, 2006, 2011 and 2018. In 2003 it even reached level 3, where there is an imminent national crisis due to the drought. It was also so dry in the warm summer of 1976 that the authorities scaled up to level 3.

 

NOS News • 3 Aug. 2022

Water shortage in the Netherlands: what does it mean and what not? See here for Dutch.

 

NOS News • 3 August 2022

Is called. hotter. hottest. Do we have to get used to extreme summer weather?

There has not been a heatwave here this summer, but it is warm. And Tuesday, July 19 was an extremely hot day. In this video, we use graphs to show that summers like this are becoming the new normal.

Q&A hitte en klimaatverandering

19,593 views Streamed live on Jul 19, 2022 Het is vandaag héél warm. Hoe is deze hitte ontstaan en waarom is het maar zo kort warm in Nederland en het Verenigd Koninkrijk? Moeten we, nu het klimaat verandert, wennen aan dit soort temperaturen? Deze en meer vragen worden beantwoord door weermannen Gerrit Hiemstra en Peter Kuipers Munneke.

Zien NOS Nieuws:

Een hittegolf is er hier nog niet geweest deze zomer, maar warm is het wel. En dinsdag 19 juli was een extreem warme dag. In deze video laten we aan de hand van grafieken zien dat dit soort zomers het nieuwe normaal worden.

 

The effects of long-term droughts in the Netherlands are greater than when they are isolated

https://www.knmi.nl/over-het-knmi/nieuws/meerjarige-droogtes-in-nederland-waterland

2 August 2022; KNMI climate report by Karin van der Wiel and Niko Wanders (Utrecht University)

In several recent summers, there was also drought, for example in 2018, 2019, and 2020. When dry years follow one another, the effects are greater than when they are isolated. New research shows that meteorologically there is no increased risk of recurring droughts, but strong climate change increases the risk of multi-year droughts.

New research by the KNMI, in collaboration with the universities of Wageningen and Utrecht, is looking at the occurrence of multi-year droughts in the Rhine basin. The research using simulated successive droughts in climate models shows how successive droughts can manifest themselves. In figure 1, two comparable meteorological summer droughts (precipitation and evaporation) have very different hydrological impacts (soil moisture). The dehydration of the soil is greater in the second dry summer than in the first dry summer.

Figure 1 (from KNMI): Time series of precipitation, evaporation, SPEI-6 and soil moisture in multi-year droughts in the Rhine catchment, based on climate model simulations. Colored lines show individual models, the thick black line the 'typical' perennial drought. Source: Van der Wiel et al. (2022, ClimDyn).

Figure 2: Change in the probability of a multi-year drought in the Rhine catchment for different levels of climate change. With 1 °C extra warming, the probability doubles (Probability Ratio = 2). Source: Van der Wiel et al. (2022, ClimDyn).

Question

Apart from the dehydration of the soil in multiyear droughts (soil moisture and groundwater level effects), how about the lack/excess of insects, disease and weed invasion, and biodiversity?

 

2022 is the sixth driest year in Dutch history

See: https://nltimes.nl/2022/07/26/2022-sixth-driest-year-dutch-history

18 July 2022 - Credit: NL Times / NL Times

Spring drought similar to record year 1976

Droogte leidt tot sproeiverbod - mei 2022

Sproeiverbod in deel Gelderland en Utrecht, tientallen dammetjes in Limburg

Redactie Limburg 14-05-22, 09:59

https://www.gelderlander.nl/limburg/sproeiverbod-in-deel-gelderland-en-utrecht-tientallen-dammetjes-in-limburg~aa1519a4/

In een deel van de provincies Gelderland en Utrecht geldt vanaf woensdag een sproeiverbod. Waterschap Vallei en Veluwe is daarmee de eerste waterbeheerder buiten het zuiden van Nederland die sproeien met oppervlaktewater verbiedt omdat het zo droog is. Het is niet bekend hoelang het verbod van kracht blijft, aldus het schap.

Vallei en Veluwe strekt zich uit van de IJssel tot aan de Nederrijn, langs de Randmeren tot in de Utrechtse Vallei. Het schap begon het voorjaar met voldoende water in beken en sloten en een behoorlijke grondwaterstand. Dat kwam doordat het in februari in het gebied veel en hard regende. Maar ondertussen is dat water op en vallen kleine watergangen en beken al droog. Dat veroorzaakt met name op de Veluwe en in de Utrechtse Vallei veel natuurschade.

Het sproeiverbod geldt volgens het schap niet voor gebieden waar water aangevoerd kan worden uit de randmeren of rivieren. In de rest van het gebied is het neerslagtekort al erg groot, aldus het schap. Ook in delen van Brabant gelden sproeiverboden. In Limburg is er nog geen verbod op het onttrekken van water uit beken en andere waterlopen.

Waterschap Limburg bouwt op minstens veertig plekken in het werkgebied wel dammetjes van zandzakken. Die zorgen ervoor dat het water niet te snel in de grotere rivieren verdwijnt.

Spring drought similar to the record year 1976

MONDAY, MAY 16, 2022 - 13:20

https://nltimes.nl/2022/05/16/spring-drought-similar-record-year-1976

Like in 2018, 2019, and 2020, the Netherlands faces drought again. So far, the precipitation deficit has been increasing at the same rate as in the record year 1976, when the drought was extra harsh in June, July, and August. Whether that will happen again this year remains to be seen, climate researcher Peter Siegmund of meteorological institute KNMI said to NRC. "But if the deficit is already so great in the spring, the maximum deficit in the summer will probably also be high."

The KNMI determines the precipitation deficit - how much more water evaporates than rain falls - every day from April 1 until the end of September. If the deficit rises, the soil dries out, and the groundwater level falls. That can have major consequences, including failed crops, subsiding houses, and weakening dykes. Low water levels can also affect inland shipping.

According to the KNMI, precipitation over the whole year in the Netherlands has actually increased since the 1960s because of climate change. For every degree of global warming, the air can hold 7 percent more water vapor, so there could be more rain. But the extra rainfall is not distributed equally over the seasons. Evaporation has increased throughout the country in all seasons, also because of climate change. 

The Netherlands sees more rain in the autumn and winter and slightly more in the summer - increasingly often in downpours. But precipitation decreased in the spring. "We don't really know why that is," Siegmund said to the newspaper. That, combined with increased evaporation, quickly results in drought. "And those are the first months of the growing season." 

With further global warming, evaporation will continue to increase, Siegmund said. The picture for precipitation in the spring and summer is less clear. According to the latest climate models, it will increase slightly in Northern Europe and decrease sharply in the Mediterranean. The Netherlands is in between those areas. "Which way we'll roll is not yet clear," Siegmund said.

Currently, the KNMI expects that the months April-September will be drier or a lot drier in the Netherlands. It partly depends on how quickly the world reduces its greenhouse gas emissions. If it happens fast, the drought months may not be as bad. But if it happens too slowly, further global warming could affect the air circulations. The KNMI's weather models show that this could lead to less moist air from the North Sea in the summer, while the easterly wind brings more dry, warm air from the Mediterranean. That would fuel the droughts in the Netherlands.

Sources

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