Significant to extreme drought is in the far west, north of central Slovakia and the far east of the territory. It is extremely dry in the area of the Little Carpathians, on Orava, upper and lower Zemplín. Drought of varying intensity affects two thirds of the territory. The Slovak Hydrometeorological Institute (SHMÚ) reported on this on its website.
“In the surface layer, there is extreme dryness in Zemplín, but also in the area of the Low Tatras and the Tatras. In the deeper layer, significant to extreme dryness persists, especially in western Slovakia, in the north of central Slovakia and in the far east,” the experts explained. According to SHMÚ, the relative saturation of the soil is below ten percent in Záhorí and around Bratislava. In addition to Záhori, saturation is ten to 20 percent also in Podunajska and lower Zemplín. Saturation is below 50 percent in more than half of the territory.
The deficit of soil moisture locally in Orava and the Far East is at most minus 60 to minus 80 millimeters, say experts. According to them, there is a moisture deficit of up to minus 40 millimeters in most of the territory. “Last week, precipitation occurred mainly at the beginning of the week. The most precipitation fell in the Tatras and Low Tatras, ten to 15 millimeters. “The total amount of precipitation was over five millimeters in Spiš, locally in Orava, Liptov, Horehroní and Gemeri,” said SHMÚ. He also pointed out that most of the territory of western Slovakia and lower Zemplín was without precipitation.
The highest air temperature was around 30.5 degrees on Sunday (May 24) locally in Záhorí and Podunajska. The lowest air temperature fell on Tuesday morning, May 19, locally in Orava, and on Wednesday morning, May 20, locally in Liptov, to around zero degrees Celsius, experts added.
