While autumn has arrived in force in France this week, Central Europe is experiencing major bad weather this weekend, with very heavy rain and abundant snowfall in the mountains. The risk of catastrophic flooding is very high.
With the passage of an active depression between the Adriatic Sea and Poland, very severe weather is underway across Central Europe, particularly Austria, the Czech Republic and parts of Poland and Slovakia. The risk of flooding will therefore be significant throughout the weekend.
A complex situation on a European scale
Following the drop in temperatures over France generated by the descent of maritime polar air, warm air is currently continuing to rise over Eastern Europe, with temperatures well above seasonal norms. For example, 25°C was still recorded in Moscow in recent days. This is therefore a strong conflict of air masses that is in place between the west and the east of Europe, of around ten degrees over a few hundred kilometres.
Between this conflict of air masses, a strong depression is gradually moving up over Central Europe and generating very degraded conditions until the beginning of next week.
A very rainy episode in the plains, abundant snow in the mountains
The depression responsible for the bad weather is unfortunately stationary, generating torrential rain, drawn by the still warm Adriatic Sea. Accumulations of 150 to 250 mm are expected over a large area of the Czech Republic, but also over eastern Austria. Locally, accumulations could reach or even exceed the 300 mm mark by Sunday evening, which risks causing major flooding in the regions concerned.
In the mountains, especially in the Austrian Alps, it is snowing heavily from 1500 meters. This Saturday morning, there was already nearly 50 cm of snow in Tyrol in Austria, which was hit by a real blizzard at high altitude. By Sunday evening, more than 1.50 to 2 meters of fresh snow above 2000 m.
The wind blew very strongly between Friday and Saturday on the border between Austria and the Czech Republic, where gusts locally exceeded 100 km/h.
This event poses an increased risk to local populations, given the intensity of the current rainfall and the sometimes steep terrain of the region, which increases the risk of landslides or catastrophic flooding. This configuration is also reminiscent of the dramatic storms that occurred between late May and early June 2013 in the same regions, causing the deaths of more than 20 people.
- La Chaîne Météo
