This year, Ukraine is set to experience an unusually hot summer, accompanied by serious environmental and climate challenges. As Obozrevatel reports, high air temperatures and hydrological drought are expected to increase the risk of fires in ecosystems, which, in turn, will worsen the situation in the country, IZ writes.
Already at this moment, there are signs of dangerous processes that may manifest themselves in the near future. According to Vira Balabukh, head of the department of applied meteorology and climatology of the Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Institute of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, the drying up of water bodies and the decrease in the level of groundwater in Ukraine create prerequisites for the occurrence of fires.
The situation will be especially critical in the southern and northern regions of the country, including Polissya, where there was previously an excess of moisture. The disappearance of small rivers and the drying up of wells only exacerbate the problem.
In addition, in Mykolaiv and Kherson regions, water quality is deteriorating, and its availability is becoming a serious problem for the population. Providing water resources is becoming a strategic challenge for the authorities.
Head of the Meteorological Forecasting Department of the Ukrhydrometeorological Center, Natalia Golenya, noted that with an increase in temperature above +20…+25°C, intense weather processes will become more frequent. The movement of atmospheric fronts, which may be accompanied by thunderstorms, hail and squalls, will increase the likelihood of such phenomena. Climate change also contributes to the more frequent manifestation of dangerous weather phenomena. Hot air in the summer will increasingly be replaced by cool fronts, which will cause numerous weather disasters.
We previously wrote that forecasters have released a weather forecast for April.