Lake Ohrid, which in summer we usually watch still as glass, showed a completely different face yesterday. Strong winds raised uncontrolled waves that battered the entire shoreline. In Ljubaništa, boats and speedboats ended up thrown onto the shore, and in Trpejca the waves covered the beach and reached the first row of houses. The damage, according to local reports, is significant.

The Struga side of the lake was hit just as hard - at the Gradište campsite the waves tossed speedboats out of the water. All of this on the same day when, on the high reaches of Šar Mountain, above 2,000 metres, the temperature dropped below zero and snow fell. Summer and winter collided a hundred kilometres apart, and between them the shore was left to pay the bill.

Such phenomena really are rare for the summer season, when the lake is tame and tourists expect nothing more than a gentle ripple. But sudden shifts in the weather and an unstable atmosphere brought a different picture today - one that looks more like an autumn storm than a July day.

Locals immediately began sharing warnings to take care, especially for those on the beaches or near the water. And that is good. But the question that hangs over every such storm is a different one: how ready are we for weather that grows ever more unpredictable? The lake does not apologise before it rages. And we still react only once the speedboats have ended up on dry land.