Precipitation Extremes and Disastrous Floods in Central Europe in July 1897

Abstract

In 2007 we have commemorated the 10th anniversary of an exceptional natural disaster that affected in July 1997 a considerable part of Central Europe, the Odra R. and the Morava R. basins in particular. It was the most severe natural catastrophe in the territory of the Czech Republic in the twentieth century. Analogical to this flood are events that occurred in 1897, i.e. 110 years ago. While in the summer of 1997 the hitherto records of multiple-day total precipitation were exceeded in numerous localities in the Czech Republic, the 1-day total precipitation of 345.1 mm from 29 July 1897 gauged at the Nová Louka station (780 m a.s.l.) in the Jizerské hory Mts. (Polish: Góry Izerskie, German: Isergebirge) was not surmounted. The 24 h precipitation amount is likely to be at least a Central-European record until today. The extreme rains in the summer of 1897 raised great floods which affected a considerable part of Europe. In the territory of the Czech Republic they occurred namely in the upper Labe (Elbe) R. basin and in the upper Morava (March) R. watershed. The high waters also showed on the Elbe R. in Saxony, on the Odra (Oder) R. and its tributaries in the today’s Poland, but also on the Danube R. in Austria where its water level culminated in Vienna 6 m above normal. Exemplified are damages incurred by the hydrometeorological extremes, especially in the today’s Czecho-Polish borderland. On the Czech side of the Giant Mts. (Czech: Krkonoše, Polish: Karkonosze, German:Riesengebirge) the flood claimed the lives of 120 persons, on the Polish side were 28 casualties.