Work

The western European spring–summer 2022 flash drought in relation to the unusually strong anticyclone

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: Flash drought is a rapidly developing form of drought characterised by anomalously rapid transitions and accelerated by soil moisture depletion, resulting in pronounced vegetation stress. It typically occurs during the growing seasons at intraseasonal time‐scales. This phenomenon has been attracting little scientific research attention in western Europe because of its historically low frequency of occurrence, despite its potentially severe impacts. Such impacts are projected to increase in severity due to increase from atmospheric thirst which has the potential to lead to more frequent and intense flash droughts in the future. This study investigates whether the drought event that occurred over western Europe during spring–summer 2022 can be deemed as a flash drought. Using the standardised evaporative stress ratio derived from the fifth‐generation global climate reanalysis data ERA5 from the European Centre for Medium‐range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) over 1980–2024, several clusters emerged as flash drought, mainly over many parts of France, Switzerland, southern England but also in some areas of Spain, Italy, and Germany. These clusters occur between May and July 2022 and all terminated between August and September. Large‐scale analysis highlights a mid‐tropospheric circulation anomaly pattern characterised by a subsidence over central western Europe which is part of a stationary Rossby wave train persisting from May to July, coinciding with the flash drought onset period. This unusually strong subsidence leads to extreme hot and dry conditions at the surface, favouring flash drought development. This research illustrates the value of applying targeted flash drought frameworks to better understand the nature of rapid drying. In an increasingly water‐insecure future, such approaches will be critical to the long‐term resilience of drought‐prone communities in both Europe and further afield.

Source: Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society

DOI: 10.1002/qj.70323