The water drowned the Cathedral Square and covered the streets: Lithuania had never seen such a flood

THE GREAT VILNIUS FLOOD IS 93 YEARS OLD

93 years ago, on April 26, the highest water level was recorded in Neri near Vilnius – 825 cm above post zero.

Such particularly large floods rarely occur in Lithuania, so today, in order to at least imagine how much the water level rose in Vilnius in 1931. April 26, you can find a tag on the wall of LMA Vrublevskii Library.

in 1931 April 21 Neris and Vilnelė spilled from the banks and flooded the lower streets of Vilnius city.

April 26 the recorded maximum discharge of the Neris in Vilnius was 1690 m³/s (for comparison, nowadays it is about 5-6 times lower during a normal flood).

The incredibly high water covered the Cathedral Square, the current T. Vrublevskis, Tilt, Žygimantų streets, Antakalnis and Žvērynas districts.

Some would ask why in 1931 the flood was so exceptional.

1930 in autumn, 13% of precipitation fell in the Neris basin. more than normal, which made the water level 114 cm higher than the perennial one before freezing. At the beginning of winter, the ground freezes very wet. 1930-1931 the winter was deep and long.

The snow began to melt only in mid-April and with high air temperature (when the air warmed up to +19 °C), so all the rapidly melting water on the surface of the ground (due to freezing) quickly flowed into the river.