These are the invisible consequences
Little water
“Local groundwater bottlenecks”: these are the invisible consequences of the drought
The dry weeks in Switzerland show up with deep water levels and little water. But the lack of rain also has an impact underground.
The Water level on Lake Constance is as deep as it has not been at this time of year for 40 years. The mighty Rhine Falls are deported to the trickle and currently has an outflow of around 170 cubic meters per second. The average for April is almost 300 cubic meters per second. If you are currently visiting the largest waterfall in Europe on the Schaffhauser side, the stinging in the dry rock.
Deep level in East and Central Switzerland
In particular, gap and karst stations in East and Central Switzerland are currently showing deep water levels. Jana von Freyberg, hydrologist at the Federal Office of the Environment (BAFU), told opposite SRF: «These are often regions where the groundwater is fed by rain. If this rain fails to fail, the groundwater levels drop. »
Important to know that groundwater levels react with a delay. The underground reservoirs are filled by rain. It should therefore continue to go down for the first time in the next few days. At the beginning of March it was still in the BAFU groundwater bullet that the levels are in the normal area in most regions of Switzerland.
With the Update from April 9th It says: «Due to the exceptionally dry conditions in February and March, the groundwater levels and source drains in most regions of Switzerland are in the normal to deep range. The majority of the tendencies are falling north and south of the Alps. In the Alps, on the other hand, the groundwater levels and swell drains rise, favored by the mild weather and the associated snow melting. »
Switzerland has very large groundwater deposits. However, these are distributed differently and in the event of drought, « there is already a lot of bottlenecks in the availability of groundwater », like that Bafu writes.
The most important and largest water reservoir in Switzerland will fill up in winter and early spring as a result of the expected increase in the winted songs, the higher rain content and the earlier snow melt.
Less groundwater formation in summer
The groundwater formation will go back in summer. However: « However, as long as the total amount of groundwater recovery is sufficient to fill the memory for several years, there will be little change in the total volume with the climate change. »
Groundwater level in Schaffhausen – Roggenäcker.
