SHMU: Significant and Widespread Lack of Precipitation Persists, Drought Deepens

Bratislava, February 25 (TASR) - A significant and widespread lack of precipitation and the related below-average water reserves bound in the snow cover persist at the end of February, the Slovak Hydrometeorological Institute (SHMU) posted on a social network on Tuesday. The unusual course of this year's winter with the absence of significant precipitation is causing a deepening drought, which is manifested in the soil, groundwater, but also partly in streams. According to the SHMU, the obvious evidence of the unusual situation are especially some "half-empty" waterworks. "At the turn of February and March, there is usually a peak in terms of accumulated snow reserves in the mountainous areas, and it is the melting of these reserves that fills the aforementioned water reservoirs," said the meteorologists. Using the example of the Vah and Poprad river basins, which drain most of our highest mountain ranges, it is clear that, especially in the second half of winter, snow stocks are well below average, or at the level of the long-term lows of the last 20 years. According to the SHMU, this year's winter is likely to go down in history as one of the poorest in terms of snow stocks. am/mcs