Flooding disaster in Central Europe

A devastating storm unleashed torrential rain and produced fatal flooding across parts of Central Europe in recent days. Several months of rain fell in just a few days, while heavy snow blanketed Alpine regions.

The death toll has reached at least 17 so far, with thousands more displaced. Countries including the Czech Republic, Austria, Poland, Romania, Hungary, south-east Germany and Slovakia have experienced some of the worst flooding in decades.

The flood risk is set to continue and perhaps even worsen in the coming days, as rivers continue to flood and burst their banks, with bridges disappearing. The Danube River, for example, is rising by around one metre every 24 hours.

It will take several days for the river levels to drop, with the high temperatures also exacerbating the Alpine snow melt at higher altitudes, leading to continued flooding downstream.

The devastation in the wake of Storm Boris can be attributed to a culmination of factors.

The Mediterranean Sea has been exceptionally warm in recent months with heat records broken. The warmer the water, the more fuel available as energy for a storm as the water evaporates.

Meanwhile, to the north, there has been an arctic blast of cold air as the jet stream plunged south.

Along this boundary of warm and cold air clashing, there was a sharp temperature gradient ripe for weather fronts.

Storm Boris formed along this boundary, stalling over Central Europe as it gained energy from the warm surrounding sea.

The amount of precipitation was then exacerbated due to an orography as nearby mountain ranges forced this warm, moist air upwards.