A year’s worth of rain already

WITH three months still to go, a year’s worth of rain has already fallen in Cyprus according to yesterday’s Meteorological Department report.

Up until September 20, the monthly rainfall exceeded five times the average, reaching a total of 23.8 mm. That is 529 per cent the monthly average rainfall of 4.5 mm.

According to one weather expert, these figures could be an early indication of an end to the dry spell of the past few years.

Andreas Poyiadjis, spokesperson for the Government’s meteorological service, said yesterday “The rainfall so far this year is 102 per cent of the average annual amount in Cyprus. This average is taken from all recorded figures since 1961.”

Asked whether this was the result of global warming, Poyiadjis said “It is possible, but this kind of change is normal. Cyprus weather system goes in ten year cycles, with a dry spell for three to four years, a normal period where figures are close to the average, and a three year very wet period.”

This will be welcome news to farmers and the Water Development department, whose dams were at 35 per cent capacity at the beginning of summer. Last year, a mere 273 millimetres of rain fell in the whole year, which is 54 per cent of the average amount of 503 mm. During the summer months the drought hit particularly hard, for example, in June 8 per cent of the average rain fell, and in July 62 per cent.

While this was a promising indication of longer term increases in precipitation, Poyiadjis was less certain about the near future. “In the coming days we will see occasional showers and thunderstorms. It will then return to blue clear skies. Beyond that it is very difficult to predict.”