Where Has the Balaton's 95 Thousand Pool-Worth of Water Gone? 🌊

The water level of Balaton has shown a dramatic decrease over the past year, affecting lakeside communities and holidaymakers alike. At Siófok, the water gauge showed 71 centimeters a year ago, but today the water level is only 31 centimeters. This 40-centimeter difference is not only expressible in numbers but is also clearly visible on the footage from the lakeside cameras.

The change is striking: in many places, much wider dry shore sections have formed, and the shallower bays present a completely different picture than last year at the same time. The current level is only 8 centimeters above the lowest ever recorded value, which was 23 centimeters in October 2003.

If we project this missing water volume onto the entire lake's surface area of 594 square kilometers, we are talking about approximately 238 million cubic meters. This amount would fill roughly 95 thousand Olympic swimming pools 🌊. For the beaches and marinas around Balaton, this means that the conditions for boating and swimming have changed significantly, especially in the shallower areas.

This situation poses a serious challenge for local residents and businesses, as lakeside life and tourism are closely linked to the water level. To return this volume of water, approximately 400 millimeters of precipitation would be needed over the entire lake surface.

Source: idokep.hu