Since November, the Northern region of Portugal has been in a situation of weak drought, with the exception of the northeast region, in Trás-os-Montes, where “there are points with moderate drought”, said Vanda Pires, from the Department of Climate and Climate Change at the Instituto Portuguese of the Sea and the Atmosphere (IPMA).

“This is the time that will greatly determine the evolution of the drought and the month of January is critical, because, if there is no precipitation, and large amounts of precipitation are not expected, at least until the end of the month, the tendency is for this situation to get worse,” she said.

It remains “to see if in February there is any recovery”, not least because “then we start to enter months of the year in which there is less and less precipitation”, she underlined.

She insisted that “January is a crucial month here for this situation not to worsen, but the outlook is not good”, adding that the region “may move to the moderate drought class”, with severe drought in the region of Bragança.