Reader’s letter: Drought in Saaremaa
Text and photo Jaanis Prii
Translation Liis
Kaali crater
Saaremaa suffers from drought. While Roomassaare had 91,4 mm of rain in August, then from September to November, during three months, it rained 55 mm. Of this only 15,5 mm fell in November. The lake in the Kaali crater is nearly all dry. The water eye in the centre of the lake has decreased to a puddle.
By comparison the driest known year was in 1964 when only 358,1 mm rain fell in Narva during the whole year. Here in Roomassaare it has now rained 358,1 mm during 11 months. So there will not be a record drought because August was really rainy.
How this shortage of water will affect plants we will not see until spring. Hopefully most of them have already gone into their winter resting stage and the thirst will be smaller.
There is no proper winter in the island yet. There have been a couple of degrees of frost in some days. A week ago dandelions and daisies were still flowering.
As the Kaali crater photo shows, the snow cover is not significant either.
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