There's an old German saying that "a cool, wet May fills the farmer's barns and barrels." But this year there's no rain in sight. It's far too dry. There was less rain in the period from the beginning of February to mid-April 2025 than at any other time in the past 100 years. March saw almost 70% less precipitation than usual, and as many hours of sunshine as we usually only have in summer.

The wildfire risk keeps rising as a result. Fires have already been reported this year in Thuringia and North Rhine-Westphalia. The level of Europe's most important inland waterway, the Rhine, was so low that cargo ships could only carry 25% of their usual load. Transport costs have noticeably increased, and experts have warned that consumer prices will rise as a result. The German Association of Towns and Cities, which represents the thousands of local authorities, has called on people to conserve drinking water.

The situation is worst in the north and north-east of the country, and in parts of Bavaria. These show up as dark red blotches on the drought monitor at the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research (UFZ).

These indicate dryness deep into the soil, but it's the 25 centimeters of topsoil that are exceptionally dry. "The topsoil is especially important for the agricultural sector, and for cereal crops and grasses, which have very shallow roots," explains Professor Dietrich Borchardt of the UFZ. Both the German Weather Service and the Federal Environment Agency confirm that increasing global warming means that this is going to happen more and more often.

Experts explain how alarming this is. When soil is dry, it repels water — just as water will simply run off if you try to water a dried-out pot plant. This means that even if rain does fall, it has difficulty soaking into the ground. The problem is........

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