Dry times in Europe

Hey, we Californians have been dealing with a drought for over 5 years.

Been raining ALL day today and I’m loving it.

Reservoirs, lakes, streams, waterfalls and MOST importantly the Central Valley need the water.

Did you know more than half the fruits, nuts and vegetables eaten in the US are grown in California’s Central Valley?

Stick to ocean cruises and stay away from river cruises this year to avoid low water levels.

We see the river cruises when we visit the cities along the rivers, and they appear very luxurious. But for $5,000 per person per week, we can take 3 complete trips to Europe and an ocean cruise.

We've been on two repositioning cruises to Europe, two cruises through the Greek Islands, a Baltic cruise around Scandinavia and a cruise around Ireland/England/France. They're a bargain in the travel world.

We feel for California and their droughts. It's the salad bowl of the U.S., and only the farms of South Florida can be comparable for fresh produce and fruits. California farms are very important to the rest of the U.S.

We did a Rhine river cruise in 2018 from Basel to Amsterdam. The Rhine was low but it affected us only in Cologne when we had to dock briefly to get off then later in the day catch a bus to Düsseldorf to reboard.

There were people on our cruise who had been on a 14-day "cruise" from Bucharest to Vienna and had spent only two days on the boat due to low water in the Danube and the rest in tour buses getting from A to B - they were not happy.

Watching the weather Channel now. Celebrating this CA precip! Hopeful not too cold or flooded for some of the growers there with low altitude cold temps and snows! We have visited these “salad bowl” areas. It’s so beautiful! Enjoyed some great farmer’s markets!
Now hoping new weather patterns open up for rain and snow in the very dry countries in Europe!

This is very sad and worrisome on levels way beyond the impacts on our pleasure trip to Italy this spring. Nonetheless, we have reservations for a few nights in Venice in late May and we're wondering if we should change our plans. We actually were going now because we were thinking climate change would put Venice under water permanently in the future.

I know there's no way to predict rainfall these next few months....but if the canals stay dry in Venice, would you go?

Living in California my entire life I have seen droughts come and go, but it has sadly become the norm in the last couple of decades and is going to get worse I’m afraid. I will never complain about getting too much rain and cheer for all the mountain snow I see from my house when looking east towards the Sierras. It’s sad to see this happening here and elsewhere, and we will all need to make adjustments. One thing that strikes me in Europe is the large quantity of water it takes just to flush a toilet. I imagine people in Europe and elsewhere are used to using water without even thinking about it.

Venice running dry? Not yet | Venice: I am not making this up....blog from someone living there. https://iamnotmakingthisup.net/37348/venice-running-dry-not-yet/

Thanks…Great article on Venice. I knew it was tidal driven…but it gets lumped into the drought concerns. And yes….most often we hear of the flooding there! So grateful for our days spent there last May. Things appeared “normal!”….Guess Venicians just go with the flow and always have!

Well, France just broke its record — set only three years ago — for most consecutive days without rain.

The drought here is serious, too

https://meteofrance.com/actualites-et-dossiers/actualites/climat/secheresse-32-jours-sans-pluie-en-france-record-battu

The bulletin, dated February 22 , says:

“Drought: 32 days without rain in France, new record”

“Rain hasn’t fallen in France since January 21, that is, for 32 consecutive days (including February 20), never seen since the beginning of record keeping in 1959, beating the 2020 record between March 17 and April 16 of 31 days.

“This situation makes for a drought in the soil, already weakened by the summer 2022 drought.”

We get a lot of fruits and nuts from California.

To possibly keep this going….could those of you who live there…France, Spain, Italy…etc please keep us informed of any rain and snow?? Now that our California friends have recieved some drought relief we are hoping, wishing, praying the same for you!

Tge title scared me for a second, I thought prohibition had come to the EU.