🔶 Drought has affected southern and eastern Germany The Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research announced that drought in southern and eastern Germany, due to lack of rainfall, has reached a worrying stage because of the past autumn and the recent heat wave. Andreas Marx, the head of the centre’s “Drought Monitor,” said, pointing to how quickly the soil is drying: “Even a summer with plenty of rainfall can hardly make up for the accumulated water deficit.” According to him, the heat of the past few weeks has rapidly reduced the moisture in the top layers of the soil, and groundwater resources remain at low levels. Experts warn that continuing this situation could damage forests, increase the risk of pest infestations, and lower river water levels, harming shipping and the production of agricultural products, especially corn and sugar beet.