Central Europe (especially South and southern East Germany as well as Czech Republic) are currently hit by one, if not the worst flood in more then a century , in parts even surpassing the flood of 2002.
After lots and lots of rain - in some areas the rainfall was supassing more the 200l/sqm or the rainfall of several month in a few days,on top of already soaked ground, pretty much every river big and small is bursting its banks. The reservoirs are full and need to eb relieved.
In Central Czech Republic (Prague) the Vltava crested today (with a waterflow of ~3200 m³/s -a Waterflow of ~ 150 m³/s is normal). Now the water moves from here to Germany along the Labe(Elbe) River.
In Southern East Germany (Saxony) the situation is critical - the Elbe River is still rising (with waters coming from Czech Republic) further downstream the rivers Mulde and Saale will join the Elbe. Both Mulde (slowly getting better in big parts, but Bitterfeld and Dessau are still extremly critical) and Saale (still rising downstram in Halle/Saale, Merseburg) are majorly flooded as well) In 5-7 days the waters will probably reach Hamburg and the North sea .
The small town I grew up in was flooded for the first time in my time here on earth.
In Bavaria the situation is slowly getting better, the waters of the Donau (Danube) now are moving south to Austria,Slovakia, Hungary ...
Passau(called the 3-river Town, where the the Donau (Danube), Inn and the Ilz meet) experienced the highest watermark since 1501 , where it apparently was about a feet higher then yesterday.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/...
List of affected rivers in Germany (source spiegel.de)
Thüringen: Werra, Saale, Wisenta, Ilm, Weiße Elster, Pleiße, Sprotte
Sachsen: Elbe and tributaries of the upper Elbe, Lausitzer Neiße, Mulde, Spree, Weiße Elster.
Sachsen-Anhalt: Saale, Mulde, Weiße Elster.
Bayern: Donau and the Donau inflows like Naab, Regen, Vils, Isar, Mangfall, Salzach, Inn, Schwarzach, Fränkische Saale, Oberer Main, Rednitz und Regnitz.
Time lapse Video from the Floods in Passau.
http://www.youtube.com/...
Here in Central Europe (I live in Prague currently) we experiencing the worst weather year in my lifetime. A colleague (unfortunately i have no source) said that according to official sources here in Prague we had 80 hours of sunshine since 1st of January. Just plain horrible.
I don't think that it is a coincidence that the North Atlantic behave unusual this year and we experiencing this weird weather.
Once the water goes away I might try to find some better information.
But there will be a major economic damage as well.
Information in english:
http://www.spiegel.de/...
Information in german:
http://www.spiegel.de/...
1:13 PM PT: Just found this graphic in a liveticker.
https://twitter.com/...
Wed Jun 05, 2013 at 2:22 PM PT: Update 06/05 5pm EDT:
The waterlevel in Dreden was at 8,64m ( 28ft 10in) at 3.45pm EDT but its rising more slowly now. It is hoped that the level will not reach what happened in 2002. But its bad enough. But it looks like the crestwave is still on czech territory. So it will still rise further.
The critical situation tonight will be in Bitterfeld on the Mulde River and in Halle/Saale on the Saale River.
Bitterfeld (which in communist times was a well knwn chemical industry town, as well as coal mining). This area has a few lakes which were formed daystrip mines. The Seelhausener See is about to overflow. The Main problem is that it generally isa few meter (i think 6 m ) higher then the next lake (Goitsche) . Both lakes are separate by a pretty small piece of earth. If this burst a floodwave into the Goitsche is feared which will likely spillover in the town of Bitterfeld.
In Halle/saale the highest waterlevels since 400 years are registered. The inner city is partly flooded already and the main problem here is the Gimmritzer Damm , which protects Halle-Neustadt. Already about 3000 people are evacuated there. This part of Halle has ~100000 Citizen. The whole City of Halle has about 230000.
On the Danube i'm not as informed but I think crest is getting close to Vienna .