Since early 2023, the Republic of Panama has experienced one of the driest years on record. Precipitation from the area of the Panama Canal Watershed (PCW), source of 100% of the water used by the Panama Canal for its operations, was below average for all but one of the 8 months that make up Panama’s rainy season (May-December).
From January 2024, large parts of Southern Africa experienced significantly below average rainfall, with Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Angola, Mozambique and Botswana receiving less than 20 percent of the typical rainfall expected for February, with devastating consequences for the population largely depending on rainfed agriculture.
Since mid 2023 the Amazon River Basin (ARB) has been in a state of exceptional drought, driven by low rainfall and consistently high temperatures for the entire year 2023 across the basin.
From boreal winter 2020 onwards, a large region in West Asia, encompassing the Fertile Crescent around the rivers Euphrates and Tigris as well as Iran has suffered from exceptionally low rains and elevated temperatures. The resulting 3-year drought has led to severe impacts on agriculture and access to potable water.
Since October 2020 large parts of Eastern Africa have been experiencing extended dry conditions punctuated by short intense rainfall events that often led to flash floods.