Agriculture bids farewell to a hydrological year of damages, rains, and hail.

Spanish farmers are looking to the sky hoping for rain ahead of the olive harvest for oil and the grape harvest, just as a hydrological year marked by hailstorms in October, spring rains, hail, and summer heatwaves and fires is about to end. The Ministry for the Ecological Transition, which has dubbed this summer as "the warmest in history" since records began, estimates that accumulated rainfall has been 8% above the normal value since the start of this hydrological year, October 1, 2024, until September 16. Spanish agriculture, in general, has undoubtedly welcomed the increased rainfall after two years of drought, but as Fernando Durá from the Valencian Community, the national water and irrigation official of Unión de Uniones, pointed out, "it hasn't rained to everyone's liking, as usual." The hailstorms recorded between October 28 and November 4, 2024, severely affected agricultural and livestock farms and rural infrastructure in the provinces of Valencia, Albacete, Cuenca, and ...