December the third driest in a decade

Last December was the third driest month in the past decade, data from the water development department showed on Monday.

Director of the Meteorology department Kleanthis Nicolaides told CyBC radio the flow of water to the dams in December 2022 was extremely limited.

Only 2,922 million cubic meters of waters was collected last month, compared with 11,923 million cubic metres in December 2021, he said.

This ranks the month as the third driest in the last ten years, when the driest December was that of 2017, with only 0.881 million cubic metres of water collected.

And rainfall is not expected to increase in the coming months.

The meteorology’s department seasonal forecast indicates that January, February and March will be relatively warm months and that rainfall will be limited to below normal levels.

Last week, the meteorological service published the average temperatures recorded at its stations throughout December, saying the month was the 13^th driest since 1901.

The average daily maximum temperature recorded at Athalassa weather station last month was 21.4C, the highest ever since its installation in 1983.

The highest ever average daily temperature was also recorded at the Polis Chrysochous weather station, with an average of 22.7C, since it became operational in 1968.

Unusually high average daily maximum temperature was also recorded at the Larnaca and the Paphos weather stations, both with 21.2C.

The average daily minimum temperatures in Cyprus were also among the highest ever recorded in December, with Athalassa reaching an average of 8.4C, Paphos of 12.1C, Polis Chrysochous of 12.1C and Larnaca of 12.2C. For the last two weather stations, the average daily minimum temperatures recorded in December were the highest since they were installed.