Drought sinks longest Polish river to record-low level
by AFP Staff Writers
Warsaw (AFP) Sept 8, 2024

Poland's longest river, the Vistula, on Sunday hit a record-low water level in the capital because of drought, the national weather agency said.

Its level at one Warsaw measuring station fell to 25 centimetres (10 inches), beating the last record by a centimetre, according to the IMGW weather institute.

"It's worse than in 2015 -- and the water continues to fall!" the institute added on X, formerly Twitter.

Most of Poland's rivers are suffering from drought, IMGW hydrologist Grzegorz Walijewski told AFP last week.

"We've been dealing with hydrological drought in Poland for a while. Since 2015 there's been permanent drought," he said.

He said climate change was to blame, as milder winters with less snow alongside fewer days of rain and higher temperatures push down water levels.

The Vistula, which is the EU member's longest river at more than 1,000 kilometres (621 miles), splits the country in half and deposits in the Baltic Sea.

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