This viral photo of the dry Loire riverbed is missing some context

A viral picture of the dry Loire river in France has been broadly shared on-line amid latest heatwaves and drought.

The picture exhibits a department of the river close to a street bridge, the place the riverbed is nearly solely uncovered.

Some on-line customers falsely claimed that the river has solely run dry for the primary time in additional than 2,000 years, or that the Loire has fallen to a report low circulation fee.

The picture is missing context and this a part of the river has beforehand dried up throughout scorching summer time climate.

The picture was captured by Franck Dubray for the native newspaper Ouest France, and it exhibits the Loire riverbed dry close to Loireauxence, between Angers and Nantes.

Some elements of the river are flowing on the lowest fee since dams have been put in within the Nineteen Eighties, however the Loire stays open to site visitors.

The picture taken by Dubray exhibits a northern tributary of the river that has beforehand been uncovered in summer time, together with in 2021.

Satellite photos on Google additionally present that elements of the riverbed and sank banks of this tributary typically seem uncovered and are completely different from the south tributary even with out excessive drought situations.

Even when the river is drier than ordinary this yr, the Loire river is designed to proceed flowing — within the occasion of the drought — alongside its narrower tributary.

Elements of the river — such because the northern tributary at Loireauxence — successfully grow to be a “useless arm” and could be crossed on foot.

French engineer and local weather professional Thibault Laconde additionally shared photographs of the northern Loire tributary dry at Loireauxence in Might 2011 and August 2009.

Laconde – like different specialists– has pressured that France is dealing with extreme drought and that it’s worrying that the Loire river may quickly be at its lowest in some areas since 1976.

“Since 1976, the Loire has solely fallen under 100m³/s at Montjean thrice; 1991, 2019 and 2022,” he wrote on Twitter. “Greater than half of French folks have by no means seen the Loire at such a low degree.”

“We face a critical drought … [but] the river isn’t dry. By exhibiting a useless arm, these photographs are no less than a dramatisation of the state of affairs.”

Ouest-France additionally reported that the Loire has not but fallen to its historic low circulation fee of 1949.