In Spain, it is facing one of the three driest hydrological years since 1961. Our crops are up and down due to lack of water, while we look up to the sky, read the news, hope the weather gets better soon, and we truce to restore water to our reservoirs. When it comes to this worrying issue, all we hear is "drought." But do we really know what kind of drought we are facing?

In general, drought can be defined as natural conditions that occur in areas with no or very short rainy seasons. This can have a major impact on the habitat and climatic conditions of the environment, or even be incompatible with life.

But there are various drought types:

Meteorological Drought: Generated when there is a persistent lack of rainfall. It stems from the global behavior of the atmospheric system, influenced by natural and anthropogenic factors, such as deforestation or increased greenhouse gases. This type of drought is associated with a specific area where these meteorological events occur.

Hydrological drought: A decrease in the availability of surface water and/or groundwater in a given area over a given time period compared to historical values. This hydrological drought can lead to complete dissatisfaction with water needs.

Agricultural drought: The lack of water at a specific time and place to meet crop needs. In rainfed crops it is associated with meteorological drought, while in irrigated crops it is more associated with hydrological drought.

Socioeconomic Drought: The impact of water scarcity on human and economic activity due to any type of drought.

Causes of water shortage problems

Although we clearly understand drought as a phenomenon associated with climate change and global warming, the truth is that it is convenient to identify cycles of meteorological droughts with recent phenomena. Therefore, the drought that our country and the rest of the planet is currently suffering from appears to be related to La Niña, an abnormal cooling of the waters of the Pacific Ocean. Experts such as spokesman Juan Jesús González concluded that, according to their own accounts, the National Weather Service (Aemet) believes that the dry period we are currently facing is the result of a blocking anticyclone , lack of sustained rainfall over time.

Also, another clear indicator is the strong thermal oscillations we experience at the end of winter. A temperature difference of over 25ºC between maximum and minimum temperatures causes us to have a "summer-winter" in some parts of the country.

The rest of the world is also suffering from these consequences, even more so than Spain. As a result, the western United States, Latin America and Morocco are facing their worst dry season in the past 30 years.

Global warming, the culprit