Northern Italy’s waterways have entered a critical state as the Po River — the country’s longest and most vital waterway — continues to shrink under extreme drought conditions. On July 1, 2026, the Po’s flow was measured at just 278 cubic meters per second near Cremona, compared with the 1991–2020 average of 929 m³/s for the same date.
Source: Pexels
Recent reports confirm the river has never fallen this low so early in the year. By late June 2026, flow had already collapsed below 300 m³/s in places against a typical June average of around 1,500 m³/s. Seawater from the Adriatic has pushed 25 km inland up the Po delta, threatening irrigation for farms in the heartland that produces milk for Parmesan cheese.
The Po River Authority (ADBPO) stated bluntly: “The grip of drought continues to tighten on northern Italy.” Without significant rainfall, officials warn that irrigation restrictions will become necessary. Piedmont is already reporting agricultural difficulties, forcing farmers to choose which crops to prioritize. Veneto declared a state of emergency on July 3, 2026.
Lake Maggiore, a key Alpine reservoir, is losing four centimeters of water per day and now stands at only 48 percent capacity. The broader European heatwave driving these conditions has shattered June temperature records across northern Italy, Germany, Poland, and Slovakia. Climatologists at World Weather Attribution concluded such extreme heat “would have been virtually impossible” in June without human-induced climate change.
This situation echoes the devastating 2022 drought, which a peer-reviewed study in Science Advances identified as the worst hydrological drought in the Po basin in at least 216 years.
Light rain in early July brought only temporary relief and did little to replenish river levels or halt the rapid decline of Lake Maggiore. With forecasts showing continued hot, dry weather, northern Italy faces mounting pressure on water supplies, agriculture, and the regional economy that depends on the Po basin. The current trajectory suggests the crisis could intensify through July unless substantial precipitation arrives soon.
AFP reports: Several waterways in northern Italy are in a “critical state” due to drought, and the weather forecast bodes ill for the coming days, the Po River Authority (ADBPO) said Friday.
“The grip of drought continues to tighten on northern Italy,” the institution monitoring Italy’s longest river said in a statement.
Light rainfall brought a drop in temperatures on Wednesday and Thursday but the authority said that if there was no more rain measures such as limiting irrigation would be needed.
The body said that Lake Maggiore at the foot of the Alps was losing four centimetres (1.6 inches) per day and was now only 48 percent full.
In Piedmont, “the waterways are suffering, and difficulties are being recorded in the agricultural sector, which is forced to make choices about which crops to bring to production”, the ADBPO said.
Near Cremona, in the middle of the plain, part of the Po riverbed was dry on Friday, and sandbanks were increasingly visible, an AFP journalist saw.
The river’s flow was 278 cubic meters (9,820 cubic feet) per second on Wednesday, July 1, compared to an average of 929 on that date between 1991 and 2020.
In the Po delta, salt water from the Adriatic Sea has now travelled 25 kilometres (15.5 miles) up the river, partly preventing irrigation of the fields.
The Veneto region declared a state of emergency due to drought on Thursday.
The heatwave that has swept across Europe would have been virtually impossible in June without climate change, according to climatologists from World Weather Attribution.
All-time temperature records have been broken in northern Italy, Germany, Poland, and Slovakia, and records for the month of June have been set in France, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland.
This heatwave has caused thousands of excess deaths in Europe, according to estimates in France, Spain and Belgium.
It would have been “virtually impossible” in June without climate change, the World Weather Attribution group of scientists said.