Turkish officials are celebrating after the average level of reservoirs that supply Istanbul with drinking water rose significantly after hitting serious lows in November.
According to Daily Sabah, the average water levels of the reservoirs that serve the Turkish capital had risen to 80.15% of their full water marks as of April 1.
This is a massive increase from their levels on November 21, when the reservoirs were sitting at an average mark of just 27.49% full.
The swell marks the end of a significant two-year slide in available water. In 2023, the reservoirs sat just 39.59% full, before continued drought brought the number to its lowest mark in a decade in 2024.
The water levels returning closer to normal means that Istanbul won't need to worry about making sure its citizens have clean drinking water in the short term.
The reservoirs around Istanbul have been in significant flux in the last decade at this time of year, rising and lowering seemingly at random.
In fact, Turkey isn't the only place in the world that has seen its reservoirs refill quickly in recent months. Spain saw reservoirs in Málaga swell to safer levels recently, as did authorities in both Pennsylvania and California in the United States.
However, other places, like North Carolina, have seen reservoirs hit low levels not seen since the 1980s.
Much of that instability likely has to do with our changing climate. As Earth gets warmer, weather becomes less and less predictable, and more and more severe.
That means that regions that were previously getting good levels of water could experience prolonged droughts followed by brief periods of massive rain or snow.
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Yes — often 😬 This poses a danger to the communities in those regions, as droughts can bring on serious agricultural issues while also posing a massive risk to the area when bigger, more violent storms roll through.
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