„Unfortunately, the decline of the Danube continues, although at a slower pace. There were one or two such ripples in our section, so to speak, with one centimeter to raise the level and then lower again. Unfortunately, yesterday we had a record low level again. Near Ruse it was minus 123.
The problem, on the one hand, is that the watershed is large. It is over 800 thousand square kilometers of Central and Eastern Europe. And with this drought, an extremely large amount of rainfall is needed to replenish this water wave“.
This was commented on in „This Sunday“ on bTV Prof. Emil Gachev from the Institute for Climate, Atmosphere and Water Research at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.
„They are not very intense, but there have been some precipitations in the Alps. It is expected that they will be heavier in some of the next days. Here for the next 5 days, for example, somewhere in some places up to 75 liters per square meter will be“, he commented and added that this will by no means be enough.
„It will still give some breath of air. As for the front, by the end of the month there will also be precipitation there. About somewhere around the 21st-22nd we will see how the situation will be. They will also cover the central parts of the watershed. But it is not expected to be some extremely extreme event. However, there will simply be some precipitation. It won't be the same drought that it was before," the specialist explained.
“There is also a pessimistic forecast, because we can't say exactly how much and when it will rain. When weather is forecasted for more than 10 days ahead, everything is conditional. And it can always change. Forecasts don't have this accuracy and models, because the atmosphere is a turbulent environment in which things vary within very wide limits. That's why it's a forecast, because it can't be 100% certain“, commented Prof. Gachev.
“Our section of the river has its own specifics. We are located under the walls of the "Iron Gates 1 and 2" complexes, which means that our current is not a direct function of what is happening above anyway. Here geography also has its say and the way in which the power plants were built.
For example, the Romanian nuclear power plant was built in a section where the river divides into branches. After Silistra, it divides into three branches, two of which are larger. And the power plant is not only not on the main branch, but is also off to the side - it is on the Danube-Black Sea canal,“ commented the expert.
“However, it cannot directly bring water from the Black Sea into it, to raise the level, and since there are locks, it is at different levels. So, in general, there is something like a dead end there, which hinders the flow of water to a certain extent, but mostly this is the small volume itself – both on the channel, which is shallow, and on the arm itself as water.
While in our country the channel is brought to a place where the river is collected. It is all the water that passes“, pointed out Prof. Gachev.