Visitors to Štrbské Pleso, High Tatras, have not seen this in 33 years.
Before New Year's Eve, approximately 11 centimetres of snow cover in the iconic resort. But the turn of the years brought warm weather, which resulted in snow melting. Although 1300 metres above sea level, now there is next to no snow at the iconic resort. A similar situation is in nearby Tatranská Štrba.
The end of December and early January saw extraordinarily to extremely warm weather in Slovakia, say meteorologists from the Slovak Hydrometeorological Institute (SHMÚ). There were two unusually long series of days when the values of the maximum daily air temperature were higher than ten degrees Celsius.
Slovakia had one of the warmest autumns in 150 years Read more The first series occurred from December 24 to December 27, the next series lasted from December 31 last year, at least until January 9.
According to SHMÚ, the highest air temperatures during these days were recorded primarily at stations in western Slovakia (Bratislava-airport, Hurbanovo and Kuchyňa-airport). On January 1 unusually high temperatures were also recorded in northern Orava and in the High Tatras area (Rabča 16.5 degrees Celsius, Podbanské 15.7 degrees, and Tatranská Polianka 15.6 degress).
"It is unusually warm at night and in the morning, in some places freezing occurs only exceptionally," said meteorologists.
"Longer-lasting significantly warm weather can have an adverse effect on plants and animals, as it promotes the early onset of plant development phases and disrupts the standard behaviour patterns of animals. This can weaken and later expose them to the risk of diseases," they added.
