Three years of record low precipitation have led the Sau Reservoir in Spain’s Catalonia region to dry up to 1% capacity in March 2024. #Landsat satellites captured the change in the region’s second largest reservoir with these two images from March 3, 2023 and March 4, 2024.

According to the Meteorological Service of Catalonia, 2023 was the second-driest year on a record that goes back 110 years, second only to 2022. The past three years in Catalonia have all seen the least amount of rain since 1914. On February 1, 2024, the Catalan government declared a drought emergency, which put restrictions on water consumption for residents, businesses, and farmers.

Over the past three years, the water level in this reservoir has decreased substantially. In April 2023, the reservoir dipped to 7 percent of capacity. In early March 2024, the water level dropped to 1 percent of capacity. It is typically at about 65 percent of capacity for this time of year.

Video Description:
Alternating between two satellite images of the Sau Reservoir a year apart. The landscape around the oval shaped reservoir lake in the middle is green and textured, indicating different heights. There is a winding river that travels up to the top of the image on the left side then diagonally toward the reservoir in the middle. The river then winds to the right side of the image. In the first image there is a tan border around a blue-green body of water for the reservoir. In the second the reservoir is mainly tan colored with a little light green colored at the bottom.

#NASA #ClimateChange #Drought #EarthFromSpace #Catalonia #Spain