According to a source from the Portuguese Weather Agency. Environment (APA), Braga was the point in the country where “it rained the most”, with 65.5 millimetres, a value that is, however, “well below the average”, while the lowest precipitation value was recorded in Portimão, in the district of Faro, with 1.7 millimetres.

“The accumulated precipitation since October 1, 2024, 231.7 millimetres, corresponds to 64% of the normal value 1981-2010”, pointed out the source of the agency responsible for environmental protection in Portugal, stressing that the meteorological drought “increased throughout the southern region”, with particular emphasis on the coast (Alentejo and western Algarve), but also in “some districts of the Central region”, such as Lisbon, Santarém and Setúbal.

Records also show that, at the end of December, 55% of the continent was in a “weak and moderate” meteorological drought and that, in the last decade, there has been less and less rain in the last month of the year, a trend that only did not occur in 2022 and which is being accompanied by a rise in temperature, he warned.

As for water reserves in reservoirs, APA data indicate that they are at 71% of total capacity, a value that represents “a slight reduction in relation to the 74% recorded in the same period” in 2023.

The Sado river basins - Monte da Rocha (11%) and Campilhas (20%) - and Arade - Bravura (13%) and Arade (16%) - are those that had dams in a “critical state” in December, or that is, with capacity equal to or less than 20%.

Algarve situations

In the Algarve, one of the regions of the country where the effects of the drought have been most felt and where restrictions on water consumption have already been applied, the six main reservoirs “accumulate 151 cubic hectometres of stored water, corresponding to 34% of the total capacity”, a value that, even so, reflects an “increase of 39 cubic hectometres in relation to the same period last year”.

“Despite this increase, the windward [west] and the Arade basin remain in extreme hydrological drought,” warned the APA source, clarifying that the leeward is “in severe hydrological drought.”

With an additional 39 cubic hectometres stored in dams in December, compared to the same month in 2023, the Algarve is in a “better” situation and has “water reserves for a year of urban consumption”, in the event that there is no more rain by there, assured the APA source.