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In Lithuania, a hydrological drought is declared at the national level, the dry period in surface water bodies begins when the water level in more than half of the water measurement stations (hydrological measurements carried out for more than 30 years) reaches the lowest average water level in the warm season. This situation arose on August 14.
The water level in Lithuanian rivers was low throughout July. Even after enough days of rain, the water level in the rivers rose slightly as most of the precipitation was absorbed by the dry land. The hydrological regime of Nemunas and Neris, Lithuania’s main rivers, has responded more to the arid conditions that have been going on for several years. In these rivers, hydrological conditions that meet the criteria of hydrological drought are observed from the first ten days of July. Currently, the hydrological situation in the Nemunas is the worst in terms of the last 4 years (since 2017 (which were extremely rainy), drops in the water level have been observed).
In the first ten days of August, the prevailing hot and dry weather significantly depleted the water bodies. As water levels continue to decline, more and more rivers are reaching their environmental discharge (that is, the minimum water flow required to guarantee the minimum living conditions of the ecosystem). The environmental protection flow is currently monitored in Nemunas near Druskininkai, Nemajūnai, Kaunas and Smalinininkai, in Lėvenis near Bernatoniai, in Neris near Vilnius, in Šalčiai near Valkininkai, in Ūla near Zervynas. Since the locations for the water stations are selected in such a way that fluctuations in the water level characterize the largest possible area, it can be stated that the rainfall in the aforementioned basins and other rivers can reach the environmental flow.
The dry weather will persist for the next few days, so the water content of all rivers will change little.
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