WEATHER – Central and Eastern Europe under water. Storm Boris hit Slovakia, Romania and Poland, causing very heavy rains and massive flooding. This Sunday evening, September 15, the latest death toll rose to at least eight and several people are missing.
Storm Boris causes several deaths and damage in Romania, Poland and the Czech Republic
“Of a violence surely unprecedented”, and “extreme event”« exceptional”, “spectacular”… Scientists interviewed by the media or on social networks do not spare superlatives when talking about this storm that is hitting part of the continent.
A few figures help us to better understand the scale of this meteorological event. “Over 72 hours, we recorded up to 430 mm in the north of the Czech Republic and 200+ mm in Austria,” points out X the agrometeorologist Serge Zaka, who is also surprised by “the extent of the rainy episode » : « It’s as if it rained 50 to 400 mm from Paris to Marseille via Lyon, Bordeaux and Toulouse.”
Rainfall records broken
Meteorologist Guillaume Jausseau shares other impressive rainfall totals in 72 hours, including 319 mm falling in Tulln, 40 km from Vienna in Austria, a “historic record broken over a 72-hour period”The previous record was set in 1967, he said.
He continues to list: 464 mm fell in Serak in the Czech Republic, 382 mm in Sankt Pölten in Austria, 255 mm in Marktschellenberg in Germany, or 188 mm in Bielsko-Biala in Poland. The storm caused massive power cuts, disruptions in the transport network and mass evacuations of residents everywhere.
“Over the last 3 days, the cumulative rainfall exceeds 100 mm over the entire northern half of Austria and over the entire eastern Czech Republic (area > 100 km²). Locally, the cumulative rainfall exceeds 300 mm in Lower Austria, and even more than 400 mm on the massifs of northern Moravia (Czech Republic)”adds his counterpart Guillaume Séchet.
Et “it’s not over”warns meteorologist François Jobard on the same social network. Citing the German weather institute DWD, he indicates that “40 to 80 litres of water per m² are still expected by Tuesday morning in the areas already affected, locally more than 100 litres of water per m².”
Climate change makes episodes more intense
The meteorological phenomenon that causes these rains is a cold drop, a mass of cool air isolated in a warmer atmosphere. This phenomenon causes intense precipitation and a more or less violent drop in temperatures.
As climatologist Françoise Vimeux explained to Release Boris storm “is not unique in any way”. “What is exceptional is the enormous potential for rainfall associated with it, as well as the size of the geographical area involved,” she specifies.
The damage is particularly severe as the depression is stuck over part of Europe, ” because a high pressure area located towards Russia prevents it from progressing and escaping towards the East”, precise, always in Releaseclimatologist Davide Faranda. We will therefore have to wait a few days before the situation calms down.
As for the link between Boris and climate change, it is explained by CNRS research director Christophe Cassou on X: “Climate change decreases the likelihood of a storm of this intensity forming. But if it does form, climate change increases its impact because the cold droplet contains more potentially precipitable water.”
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