The Batschka has a temperate central European climate with
strong continental influences. By this I mean that the annual
fall in temperatures fluctuated greatly. In the middle of
January the temperature was 2.5 to 1.5 degrees below zero, while
in the middle of July it was 22.0 to 23.0 degrees Celsius (71.6
to 73.4 °F). In the summer it could be up to 40 degrees Celsius
(104 °F) under the influence of the subtopic high pressure
extreme, and in the winter it could be minus 30 degrees Celsius
under the influence of the Siberian anti-cyclone.
Air humidity and clouds
are the highest in December and in August at the lowest. With
the blue sky in July and August and the high temperatures now
and then a true Fata Morgana (Delibàb) can be seen, that is,
mirages which usually only occur in the desert.
The annual amount of
precipitation is not very high, but is to some extent well
distributed in the course of the year. In the southern part the
precipitation is still 60-700 mm on the average, in the north it
is always less, so that in places only scantily more than 500 mm
was recorded. On the average 86.5 % of this precipitation falls
as rain, 13.5 % as snow. Annually there are about 92 days with
rain, 18 with snow, and 2 with hail. The most precipitation
falls in May, June, and October. The dry months are January and
February. Typical for the land are the thunderstorms with
“Platsch rain”, on the average of 23 days a year. In the
afternoon hours of hotter, clearer summer days the upper surface
of agricultural lands or the drifting sands can warm up to 65
days Celsius, created all the conditions for the formation of
thunderstorm clouds. Under violent thunder and lightning the
“Platsch rain” started in the late afternoon and early evening
hours. Soon after the thunderstorm the sky brightened up again
and the evaporation started in large amounts. The whole thing
happened like a true tropical tornado.
The wind blows in the
winter mainly from the north-northwest, in the summer from a
northwesterly direction. The annual average speed of the wind
moves between two and three meters per second, which are
actually weak winds. The thunderstorms have a speed of more
than 10 meters per second.
The average worth of the
climatic factors are in general described as favorable in the
Batschka, but besides that there is an uncertainty co-efficient
, which can be expressed neither in numbers nor in average
worth. Whoever saw the worried look of the Batschka farmers in
the hot summer months when they scanned the horizon in the
evening looking longingly in the distance for heat lightning,
praying for much rain, hearing begging and cursing, will be able
to imagine just how very important it is here when the
precipitation falls and how literally from a wind direction,
from a temperature maximum, from a couple drops of rain a wide
stretch of land can be dependant on it.
So the climate already is
not to be described exactly as a restful climate, so perhaps one
searches in the network of bodies of water for something more
romantic: the blue Danube, the sandy colored Theiß, the Blutsee
(Blood Lake), Moostung, Schlangenbach (Snake Brook), Eselbach
(Donkey Brook), Butterbach (Butter Brook)… which all certainly
seemed beautiful. In the natural state the bodies of water had
a sluggish course and tended to become swampy, yet the people
had also formed an effect around here: the streams were leveled,
the brooks were channeled, new drainage ditches and shipping
canals were built, so that the original condition is hardly
still seen in the water network.
The Danube forms the
border of the Batschka for 306 kilometers in the west and
south. On the stretch the Danube falls from 90 meters above sea
level north of Baja to 74 meters at the mouth of the Theiß, so
it is a fall of only 52.28 mm per kilometer. Before the great
river gradients of the 19th century the fall was only
40 mm per kilometer. The water command of the Danube here also
depends much on the high water mark in May and June, the lowest
water mark in December. Near Wukowar there is also a high water
mark in May, but a low water mark in February. Flooding comes
when the snow melts and heavy rain falls together. Hundreds and
thousands of hectares of land are then flooded. It may perhaps
also be interesting to learn how much water flows down the
Danube:
Near Besdan
flows through on the
average 65,077 cubic meters of water per year.
Near Wukowar (after the
influx of the Drau)
flows through on the
average 82,779 cubic meters of water per year.
Near Slankamen (after the
influx of the Theiß)
flows through on the
average 124,705 cubic meters of water per year.
Near Titel on the Theiß
flows through on the
average 21,966 cubic meters of water per year.
The Theiß is the border
river of the Batschka in the east and had a length of 229. 5
kilometers before the regulation of this section; but since the
work of the 19th century only 179.3 kilometers. The
fall formerly amounted to only 15 mm per kilometer and today
amounts to 27.88 mm per kilometer. The water mark is at its
highest in April and at its lowest in October, where the maximum
water mark is almost eight times more than the minimum water
mark.
The largest lake in the
Batschka is the Palitsch Lake near Theresiopel with a surface of
seven square kilometers. With luck the trees on its shores were
not cut down – like on other lakes, formed a very pleasant place
for relaxation there. In the neighborhood of Palitsch one also
finds other lakes, but because of the reeds existing on the
shores they are not open to foreign traffic. In the
neighborhood of Palitsch there is also a strange “salt sea.” In
dry years its water is saturated with sodium salt and completely
dries up in the summer. The whole lake surface is then filled
up with a white salt crust which was like the salt gravel at the
desert’s edge. The Batschka is much more abundant in swamps tan
lakes, but only a very small remnant of the former expansive
swamps still exist. The “toad hole” at the edge of the village
is frequently still such a remnant of a former swamp, but also
can be made by the people, and indeed it is where he takes the
earth out to build his homes. The shipping canals are also
created by the people: the 123 kilometer length, up to 20 meters
wide and 2 meters deep of the Franzen Canal from Besdan on the
Danube to Betsche on the Theiß and 66 kilometer long Franz Josef
Canal, where the Franzen Canal near Stapar connects with the
Danube near Neusatz. In addition there are numerous kilometers
of drainage canals. The original picture of the bodies of water
has disappeared, and yet there are still some small places in
which children play and adults can dream, also when the “blue”
Danube only leads to gray-brown water and the “sandy colored”
Theiß is gray-green. In the remaining swamps the hemp was
roasted where one can reach a long way; in the “toad holes” the
toads give their concert in the evening: in the larger drainage
canals the schoolboys went fishing with baskets without bottoms…
The active person has
formed the original picture around the natural landscape. Our
ancestors decisively contributed to this conversion.
[Published at
DVHH.org 19 Sep 2005 by Jody McKim
Pharr]
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