Cyprus-Forum.com

[Sotos]

THE WEATHER year has not kicked off to a good start, with conditions drier and warmer than the norm, Meteorological Service head Kyriakos Theofilou said yesterday. In fact during the period October 1 to December 31 the island has suffered a drought, painting a very different picture from a Europe plagued by sub zero temperatures and heavy snowfall during the same period, he said.

“The average temperature for December was 2°C higher than normal and rainfall barely reached 21 per cent of the monthly norm; the lowest amount in the last 10 years,” he told the Sunday Mail.

According to Theofilou, this was a “worrying phenomenon” because without sufficient rain in December and January there would be severe water reserve shortages.

He said: “It’s still too early to say this year has been a drought year because we measure our year starting from the beginning of October to the end of September. What I can say is that from October 1 till December 31 we only had 66 per cent of normal rainfall for the period, which is a drought. (And) although in November we had 170 per cent rainfall it was still not enough to make up for the water shortage in October and December.”

Water department senior technician Fedros Roussi said the dams were down 61 million cubic metres from the same three-month period last year.

“This year, water in the dams is 46.7 per cent of capacity with 127.8 million cubic metres. For the same period last year, it was 69 per cent of capacity with 189 million cubic metres,” he said.

Roussi said water inflow had also been low for the period at 3.8 million cubic metres and that at the moment there was none at all. If January and the following months continued to be dry, there would have to be water cuts, he warned.

“We still have enough water to cover domestic supply by 100 per cent, but will have problems for irrigation purposes. However, it’s too soon to tell what amount of water cuts we will make, as this will be decided in March,” Roussi said.

Although it was still too early to predict January’s rainfall, the forecast for the next few days was not very promising.

“Over the next days there may be light rain on Saturday and Sunday, but it will be very limited,” said Theofilou.

As for snow, skiers would have to pray for rain before hoping for snow.

“There was some snow in November but nothing significant. You need rain to have snow. Without rain, there’s no snow.”

Asked the reason behind this period of drought, Theofilou said it could not be explained.

“There is no why. This is the general circulation of the atmosphere and it cannot be explained.”

He said there was some indication that it could be related to global weather changes, but then said Cyprus had known periods of drought before and that this was probably one of those.

[devil]

In Mosfiloti, we have had an estimated 30 mm of rain this season, where I would expect >100 mm. In December, we had 21.8 mm measured, against an average of 77 mm (for Nicosia which should theoretically have marginally less because of orographical effects). See http://www.cypenv.org/weather/wx7.htm. As for November, we measured literally zero (there were two minor showers of <0.5 mm which is the limit of sensitivity of my rain gauge), so I suspect that the figures he cites are for Troodos, where rainfall is higher. I did not have a rain gauge installed in October.

Unfortunately, my weather station is currently out of service because the thermo-hygro sensor has had to be returned to the supplier. I hope to get it back in service by the end of the month.

I'm very worried about the lack of rain. Throughout the whole of November and December, we had a succession of anticyclones which forced all the normal progression of depressions northwards towards Turkey and the Black Sea. These depressions carry the rain. Crete has had a normal rainfall, but, instead of carrying Eastwards towards us, the depressions have travelled up the Aegean.

Currently, an anticyclone has just collapsed but there is no significant depression to take its place: we shall probably get some cloud with a few showers over the mountains today, but nothing significant. What will happen tomorrow is a 50:50 chance that another anticyclone will build up. If this happens, it will mean no further rain for a few days. If it doesn't, it will be status quo with light showers, nothing heavy as there is no rain-bearing depression west of us nearer than Sicily and even that is slightly too northwards.

You will remember that I posted other threads about this bad situation. Kalimera to water rationing again

[devil]

I've added a further comment at http://www.cypenv.org/smf/index.php?top ... 123#msg123

[Kenneth]

may I ask the price for 1 cubic meter 1000L in Cyprus ?
How do they rationate it ? do they slack the pressure or completely shut of the water at certain times ?

[devil]

The price is on a sliding scale with a negative quantity discount. Very small consumers may pay £0.25 going up to £1 for large consumers.