The 2022 drought in France: back to the future

2022 will be in climate record as an exceptionally dry and hot year in France comparing to the climate of the first two decades of the 21st century. During the whole year of 2022, France observed a record of temperature anomaly of +2.7 degrees C comparing to the average reference period 1961-1990 and a lack of precipitation of 22%, placing 2022 as the second driest year just after 1989. The list of records broken in 2022 is particularly long, the driest year in term of effective precipitation since 1960, the warmest anomaly of temperature since 1900 and record of drought during the vegetation season (1 March-31 October) since 1959. The lack of precipitation combined with high temperature associated with 2 heatwaves in July and August led to drying of surface soils reaching a historic record level across France from 17 July to 17 August 2022, dryer than 2003. The soil wetness stay closed to the dryest record all summer until the end of September, also fully in line with the perspective of climate change by illustrating in terms of average and extreme temperatures, summer drought, agricultural drought the expected developments in our country for the coming decades.