Hit by drought

Severe drought hits Catalonia and water reserves are at their lowest levels for decades, sparking fears of upcoming water restrictions

August

August 1. Severe drought in Catalonia brought reservoir water levels so low that normally submerged landmarks were revealed. The receding waterse exposed, for example, the ruins of the 11th-century church in the former village of Sant Roma de Sau, in Vilanova de Sau.

2. Archaeologist Eudald Carbonell and his team of researchers discovered fragments of a Neanderthal skull in l’Abric Romaní, an archeological site situated 60km west of Barcelona in Capellades. These are the first human remains found after 40 years of excavations.

3. Despite being Covid-positive, Kilian Jornet became the first athlete to complete the Ultra-Trail Mont-Blanc mountain trail running classic in less than 20 hours. It was the fourth time that the 34-year-old Catalan won the UTMB, the most important race of its kind.

4. The last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, died on August 30 in Moscow aged 91. His remarkable political and economic reforms of glasnost and perestroika led to the break-up of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, and also military nuclear de-escalation.