Rain and Water Tables

There is an article on Swiss Radio and Television that discusses the positive impact that the flooding has had on the water tables. For several years not only have we had warm weather but we have also gone with very little or no rain for months at a time.

During some weeks we were told "The water reserves are so low that we will soon need to switch to retrieving water from the lake rather than our reservoires. Underground water is great for when there's a drought above ground, but the problem is that underground water is finite, and as a result if it is not replenished then it will eventually run out.

The fact that we have had so much rain over the last few days is excellent for the water tables, as I have tweeted or written here. As that water gets down to the water table, it will remain, until the next time it is needed.

Après plusieurs années de canicule, les eaux souterraines avaient, en certains points, fortement baissé, notamment dans le canton de Vaud.
Source: Les fortes précipitations ont un impact positif sur les nappes phréatiques

It's easy to see the human tragedy of mass flooding, and people losing everything. We must also understand that nature has a way of balancing things out. That's why this planet, and these latitudes, are inhabitable. It is normal, after a period of drought, for a lot of rain to fall, to replenish water tables, and then for another period of drought to come back.

This amount of rain has not fallen in seventy years. What makes this year unique is that it is spread across the whole of Switzerland.

Chaque ville a déjà connu des débuts d'été particulièrement arrosés. À Sion, ce fut l'année 2007. À Genève en 1997, à Lucerne en 1993. La particularité de cette année 2021, c'est l'étendue du phénomène. Toutes les stations montrent un pic des moyennes quotidiennes de précipitations.
Un niveau de précipitations inédit depuis 70 ans en ce début d'été

And for your intellectual curiosity, if you understand French. The phenomenon of the "Cold Drop".

Les faibles températures et les violentes précipitations qui s'abattent sur la Suisse sont dues à un phénomène météorologique appelé "goutte froide". Il désigne une poche d'air froid qui est abandonnée par la calotte du pôle Nord.

Cette masse est ensuite "étranglée" et "attaquée" de part et d'autre par un air plus chaud. Elle se met alors à tourner sur elle-même jusqu'à former une dépression, donnant lieu à des orages et de fortes pluies.

That's it for today.