Reservoirs still 77% full despite protracted summer
While temperatures in recent days have been 6 to 10C higher than usual for the time of the year, reaching 36C in Nicosia both on Monday and Tuesday, this and a lack of rainfall have not yet affected water levels in the reservoirs.
The hot weather will abate somewhat over the next few days, but will remain well above average, with highs of more than 30C in some areas.
Rain is also unlikely to fall this week, at least in Nicosia, where the possibility of precipitation has been forecast for November 2 when, according to online site climate-data.org, which posts climate data for cities worldwide, 1 millimetre of rain may fall in the form of scattered showers in the capital.
Data by the water development department show despite this the reservoirs are still overall 77.1 per cent full, though not quite as full as last year at the same time, when the overall figure was 80.1 per cent.
Kouris, the biggest reservoir, is filled 82.2 per cent to capacity at the moment, while it was 86.3 per cent full last year. Asprokremmos, the second biggest, is 85.8 per cent full compared to 86.4 per cent on the same day last year.
While in October last year 2.43 million cubic metres flowed into the reservoirs, this was unusually high. In seven out of the last ten years, rainfall resulted in less than one million cubic metres reaching the reservoirs, and numbers for November are not much higher.
Most rain falls in December and January, and it is in February and March the water development department reassesses the situation and starts to make plans for the summer.
The past two years have seen record water levels in the reservoirs. In the first week of January 2020, many of the island’s dams overflowed, the first time they did so that early in a year.