Articles | Volume 17, issue 5
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-2201-2021
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-2201-2021
Research article
 | 
21 Oct 2021
Research article |  | 21 Oct 2021

The 1921 European drought: impacts, reconstruction and drivers

Gerard van der Schrier, Richard P. Allan, Albert Ossó, Pedro M. Sousa, Hans Van de Vyver, Bert Van Schaeybroeck, Roberto Coscarelli, Angela A. Pasqua, Olga Petrucci, Mary Curley, Mirosław Mietus, Janusz Filipiak, Petr Štěpánek, Pavel Zahradníček, Rudolf Brázdil, Ladislava Řezníčková, Else J. M. van den Besselaar, Ricardo Trigo, and Enric Aguilar

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Cited articles

Barriopedro, D., Fischer, E. M., Luterbacher, J., Trigo, R. M., and García-Herrera, R.: The hot summer of 2010: Redrawing the temperature record map of Europe, Science, 332, 220–224, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1201224, 2011. a
Blanchard, R.: La sécheresse en Dauphiné (1920–1921), Revue de géographie alpine, 10, 181–199, 1922. a
Blauhut, V., Gudmundsson, L., and Stahl, K.: Towards pan-European drought risk maps: quantifying the link between drought indices and reported drought impacts, Environ. Res. Lett., 10, 014008, https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/10/1/014008, 2015. a
Bonacina, L.: The European drought of 1921, Nature, 112, 488–489, 1923. a
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Short summary
The 1921 drought was the most severe drought to hit Europe since the start of the 20th century. Here the climatological description of the drought is coupled to an overview of its impacts, sourced from newspapers, and an analysis of its drivers. The area from Ireland to the Ukraine was affected but hardest hit was the triangle between Brussels, Paris and Lyon. The drought impacts lingered on until well into autumn and winter, affecting water supply and agriculture and livestock farming.