looduskalender.ee

On December 22, at 7.30 am, the calendar winter begins. The sun has reached the southernmost position in its path. The day is only a few minutes longer than six hours. Twilight lasts about an hour both in morning and evening and so the duration of darkness is nearly sixteen hours. There is not even snowlight to ward off the darkness.

 

And flood water lasts – the Witch Well of Tuhala boils, but this is already for the third time at Christmas in this millennium (earlier in 2003 and 2008) so nothing remarkable. There have been rain and watery slush in full measure in December and if Old Father Weather had given us frost the snowdrifts would have been higher than last year and the year before.

But this year's winter will not stay in heaven.

 

The rains of the last few weeks have raised the level of the Halliste river in Soomaa by more than a metre. Pre-winter is not habitually a „fifth season“.

The web camera image (above) is updated every few seconds at most, depending on the connection. It is quite sufficient for an overview. At the camera location, at Karukose on the bank of Raudna river, the marks of previous highest water levels can be seen on the measuring pole.

 

... and the attentive nature friends of Looduskalender’s forum.