2025 was another year of drought in Hungary

By: Trademagazin Date: 2025. 09. 09. 11:19

🎧 Hallgasd a cikket: Nyelv: Sebesség: 1.05×

2025 was another year of drought in Hungary – despite the fact that there was more rainfall than in the infamous year 2022, the groundwater level continued to sink, the amount of water arriving by rivers decreased, the annual distribution of precipitation became increasingly unfavorable, and the soil dried out. It has now become obvious: water shortages are no longer an emergency, but part of our everyday lives, causing increasingly serious agricultural damage and habitat loss.

Since 2022, drought has been a recurring guest that, although we do not welcome it, we still offer it space, feed it, and water it in the form of bad decisions and practices – so it is slowly moving here permanently. As a result, farmers are facing increasingly difficult situations: the groundwater has sunk too deep – this can be as much as minus 3 meters compared to the average for many years – and wells are drying up. In disadvantaged regions that engage in small-scale farming, many people lose hope and motivation to continue due to crop failure.

By the end of the summer, Hungarian agriculture had suffered 100 billion in damage, primarily due to drought in the case of arable farming.

Rivers and precipitation: historical lows and extremes

In the spring of 2025, the water levels of the Danube and the Tisza approached historical lows, thanks to the record-low rainfall experienced in the upper catchments and the lack of snow cover. In the Tisza, a water level of -257 cm was measured at the Szolnok water gauge in early March, and it was already -292 cm at the beginning of July. At the same time, the Ínség Rock appeared in the Danube on both occasions in Budapest. The summer with heat waves and strong evaporation further aggravated the situation. In 2024, 30-40% less precipitation fell in the Homokhátság and Tiszántúl compared to the average for many years. Now, at the beginning of September 2025, the water management drought monitoring network is still indicating an extraordinary and severe drought in the Homokhátság. According to reports from the water management directorates, several wells have dried up or their water levels are unusually low. The region most severely affected by the dramatic drought continues to be the Homokhátság.

“The Hungarian landscape is now like a cracked clay jar: if we don’t repair the cracks, no matter how much water we pour into it, it will leak out. If there is no real breakthrough, within ten years we may face permanent, severe drought not only in the Great Plain,” warns Andrea Samu, an expert in the WWF Hungary Living Rivers program.

The signs can also be observed in the central mountains: forests are turning yellow earlier and earlier, and pastures are burning out in many places by the beginning of summer. Research predicts the disappearance of certain tree species, such as beech, and their transformation into dry grassy steppe.