border of the province. The Adda separates Cremona from the Province of Lodi and the Oglio provides the border with the Province of Mantua. Other rivers in the north of the province include the Serio and the Tormo, and the Mella makes up a short stretch of the border with the Province of Brescia. These rivers are linked by a network of canals which have been in place since at least the sixteenth century and are largely used for irrigation. The Muzza Canal takes its water from the river Adda and irrigates the land between that river and the river Ticino, converting the plain into a fertile area with rich meadows and productive agricultural land. The total area of the province is . Although the province is essentially flat, there are some undulations in the surface formed by the varying courses of the rivers over the millennia. For historical reasons, the province is subdivided into four rural districts, centred on Crema, Soresina, Cremona and Casalmaggiore. In the north, some watercourses emerge from the ground in the "line of springs", a phenomenon of the northern Lombardy Plain, where melt-water from the Alps flows underground through porous gravelly soils before being forced to the surface when it reaches impervious, clayey ground. The climate is largely uniform throughout the province. The annual rainfall is about with October and November being the wettest months and February and July being the driest. The average temperature is in January and in July. There is often fog in winter, especially near the rivers. Government The Province of Cremona is an administrative body of intermediate level between a municipality (comune) and Lombardy region. The three main functions devolved to the Province of Cremona are: local planning and zoning; provision of local police and fire services; transportation regulation (car registration, maintenance of local roads, etc.). As an administrative institution, the Province of Cremona has its own elected bodies. From 1948 to 1995 the President of the Province of Cremona was chosen by the members of the Provincial Council, elected every five years by citizens. From 1995 to 2014, under provisions of the 1993 local administration reform, the President of the Province was chosen by popular election, originally every four, then every five years. In a 2005 ruling of the European Court of Justice, the comune of Cingia de' Botti's award of a concession contract for public gas distribution services