Not Enough Rain This Year

Several locations haven’t been this dry since 1885

The drought in Austria remains a problem. In some parts of the country, conditions have not been this dry since 1885. In agriculture, the situation is becoming increasingly dire.(Bild: Attila Molnar)

The drought in Austria has now become a massive problem, as GeoSphere Austria reported in a press release. In certain parts of the country, conditions have not been this dry since 1885. These include, for example, the Vienna Basin, the Innviertel (Upper Austria), the Waldviertel and Weinviertel (Lower Austria), and parts of Burgenland.

“On average across these regions, precipitation has not been this low since 1885, when rainfall was also about 35 percent lower,” said climatologist Alexander Orlik of GeoSphere Austria. In Vienna, the Weinviertel, and parts of Burgenland, the climatic water balance index (a measure of the difference between precipitation and evaporation, note) for the past 30 days is below minus 2.5 in Vienna, and in the Vienna Basin and Marchfeld, it is even below minus three. The situation is similar in the Walgau and Montafon regions of Vorarlberg.

In June, the towns of Hohenau an der March (Lower Austria), Kremsmünster (Upper Austria), Ried im Innkreis (Upper Austria), and Salzburg Airport were particularly dry. Between January 1 and June 30, 2026, precipitation across Austria was 27 percent below the long-term average. According to GeoSphere Austria, however, this alone is not unusual. “Low-precipitation conditions in the first six months of a year occur time and again in Austria. In 2003 and 1993, for example, with deficits of 30 and 29 percent, respectively, precipitation was even slightly lower than in the first half of this year,” said Orlik.

This year, only February saw more rain and snow than usual:

This Much Precipitation Is Missing
According to the climatologist, the particular dryness in certain parts of the country is problematic. Precipitation deficits in the first half of 2026 ranged between 30 and 40 percent, and in the east even reached up to 50 percent. “To make up for the precipitation that has been missing in Austria since the beginning of the year, an additional average of about 160 liters per square meter would need to fall nationwide in the coming weeks. In other words, we’re missing the precipitation equivalent to one full summer month plus another third of a summer month,” Orlik explained.

According to GeoSphere Austria’s forecast, conditions will remain dry in the coming days, particularly in eastern Austria. In the west, in Carinthia and Styria, there would be thunderstorms, but no extensive, widespread rainfall.

74 Percent Concerned
According to a recent survey by the market research institute Integral, 74 percent of respondents are concerned about the current drought in Austria. An equal number of the 1,000 respondents expect extreme weather events to disrupt their daily lives in the future. And six out of ten people believe Austria is ill-prepared for climate change. In larger cities, especially in Vienna, where the heat is felt most acutely, people view the situation much more critically than in smaller communities, the report stated.