04.02.2021
Information on the hydrometeorological situation in river basins of Belarus formed in January 2021
The average air temperature was within -4.1°C, which is 0.3°C higher than the climatic norm. The temperature regime was heterogeneous throughout the month. The first and third decades were very warm, with an average air temperature of 3.8°С and 4.0°C above normal. The second decade was very cold with the air temperature 7.0°C below normal.
During the month, on average, 73.2 mm of precipitation fell in Belarus, which is 183% of the climatic norm. Throughout the country in January, 1.5-2 rainfall rates fell. Precipitation fell in the form of rain, snow and sleet. The height of the snow cover on the last day of the month ranged from 5 cm to 44 cm.
In early January, weather conditions facilitated the opening and clearing of rivers from ice formations, freeze-up and freeze-up with openings were observed only on the Western Dvina near the city of Surazh and the village of Ulla, the Dnieper near the town of Rechitsa, their individual tributaries and some tributaries of the Sozh. On the reservoirs Vileyskoye, Chigirinskoye, Zaslavskoye, Soligorskoye, Krasnaya Sloboda, lakes Drivyaty and Chervoneye, freeze-up with openings was observed.
In the second decade, due to a drop in air temperature, ice formation processes resumed on the country's water bodies. Frosty weather contributed to the establishment of freeze-up and an increase in ice thickness on the country's water bodies. Freeze-up with a thickness of 5-21 cm was established on the rivers of the basins of the Western Dvina, Dnieper, Berezina, Sozh, Pripyat, most of the rivers of the basins of the Neman and Viliya; in some places, polynyas were observed in the ice cover. On the reservoirs Vileyskoye, Chigirinskoye, Zaslavskoye, Soligorskoye, Krasnaya Sloboda, lakes Lukomskoye, Drivyaty, Naroch and Chervoneye, a continuous ice cover with a thickness of 14-24 cm was noted.
In the third decade, the unstable nature of the weather and precipitation in the form of rain and sleet contributed to the melting of ice on the country's water bodies, spaces with an open water surface increased in the ice cover, and water appeared on the ice. Separate tributaries of the Neman, Dnieper and Berezina were cleared of ice formations.
In January, the rise in water levels prevailed on the country's rivers. In some sections of the rivers, during the period of ice formation, there were sharp (up to 46 cm) daily fluctuations in water levels caused by ice jam.
The water levels exceeded the marks of the water outlet on the floodplain on the Neman near the village of Belitsa, Viliya near the village of Steshitsy, the Dnieper near the town of Loev, the Berezina near the town of Berezino and the town of Svetlogorsk, its tributary to the river Svisloch near the village of Terebuty, Sozhe near the town. Slavgorod and the Pripyat tributary to the Ptich river near the village of 1st Slobodka.
In January, the water content of the rivers Zapadnaya Dvina, Dnieper, Berezina near the towns of Borisov and Sozh in the Krichev - Slavgorod section was 40-50% higher than the norm. The water content of the Neman, Viliya, Western Bug, Pripyat, Berezina near the city of Bobruisk and Sozh near the city of Gomel was close to the usual for this time of year and somewhat less than it.
