European summer droughts since 2015 most severe in centuries, but multi-year droughts also happened in the past

The 2015–2018 summer droughts have been exceptional in large parts of Western and Central Europe over the last 400 years, in terms of the magnitude of drought conditions. This indicates an influence of man-made global warming. However, multi-year droughts have occurred frequently in the 17th and 18th century, although not as severe.