The main purpose of this ongoing blog will be to track planetary extreme, or record temperatures related to climate change. Any reports I see of ETs will be listed below the main topic of the day. I’ll refer to extreme or record temperatures as ETs (not extraterrestrials).😉
Main Topic: Climate Change Probably Led to European Storm Boris
Dear Diary. I’ve noticed over the weekend that there have been eye popping weather reports coming from Europe such as these:
Over the last few years, we frequently have seen very cold pockets aloft getting pinched off from the main polar jet. These can be accompanied by arctic air at the surface, sometimes at record cold levels, and heavy precipitation from the storms that they produce. Warmer than average air at the 500 millibar level produce by climate change sometimes intrudes into the Arctic and Antarctic, pinching off cold pockets to produce this stormy weather across the planet more frequently than what we saw prior to the 21st century. Look at the work of Dr. Jennifer Francis to learn more details:
Polar vortex puts Woodwell senior scientist in national spotlight – Woodwell Climate
In the current case of Europe’s recent deep freeze and Storm Boris we see a stark pattern of anomalous warmth with a cold pocket in the form of a vortex stuck over central Europe:
Here are more details from the Washington post on Europe’s latest spate of wild weather:
Europe floods: Death toll in central Europe rises, more rains expected – The Washington Post
Death toll rises in European floods; more severe weather expected
At least 12 people have died in floods in central Europe, including in Romania, Poland, Austria and the Czech Republic, according to officials.
A woman hugs her relative after being evacuated from her flooded house in Jesenik, Czech Republic, on Sunday. (Petr David Josek/AP)
By Ben Brasch, Praveena Somasundaram and Kate Brady
Updated September 16, 2024 at 8:49 a.m. EDT|Published September 15, 2024 at 2:06 p.m. EDT
Catastrophic flooding has killed at least 12 people in Central and Eastern Europe, where more severe weather is expected this week.
Floods or heavy snow have hit Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. Authorities have evacuated people from homes drenched by rain. Photos show deluged cars, destroyed businesses and stranded people.
The storm, which some forecasters named Boris, was caused by Arctic air sweeping south through Europe and running into warmer air. The weather system also buried many towns in snow.
Several people have died and hundreds more have been evacuated, as a severe storm bearing torrential rain swept through parts of Eastern and Central Europe. (Video: Naomi Schanen/The Washington Post)
What to know
How severe is the storm?
Authorities in the eastern Romanian county of Galati sent boats to rescue residents and ordered the national police to assist. Residents will also receive enough water and food for one week and can stay in temporary modular homes, officials said.
Romania’s environment minister, Mircea Fechet, told the Associated Press that some areas were hit with 42 gallons of rain per square meter, a rare volume of precipitation.
Water safety is a priority during flooding because treatment plants can get overwhelmed to the point of releasing dirty water, and groundwater can also become contaminated.
That was the case in Klodzko, a Polish town on the Czech border about 85 miles northeast of Prague. The city’s water utility warned residents of possible contamination from flooding and recommended that customers not drink tap water, according to national newspaper Rzeczpospolita. Waters in the city center reached about 5 feet deep at some points.
Drone footage showed Polish towns submerged underwater following catastrophic flooding caused by heavy rainfall. (Video: Reuters)
A man looks at a flooded street in Pisecna, Czech Republic, on Saturday. (David W Cerny/Reuters)
The snowfall was also unusually intense. For some areas of the Austrian Alps, it was the first time on record that snow accumulated in September.
Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer, who said on Saturday that almost everywhere in the country had been affected by heavy rainfall or snowfall, said on Sunday afternoon that the “situation remains serious.” Thousands of firefighters and emergency workers have been deployed to tackle the floods, he said, and schools were closed Monday.
Campaigning for the Sept. 29 legislative election was also paused Sunday. “All our energy and attention is focused on disaster management and helping those affected by the storms,” Nehammer wrote on X.
By Monday, the severe rainfall showed little signs of easing. In the state of Upper Austria, emergency services said that new, intense rainfall was causing water levels to rise again.
“We are currently monitoring the situation and waiting for a possible second wave,” Markus Voglhuber, spokesman for the state fire brigade command, told Austrian public broadcaster ORF. Authorities in the state of Lower Austria warned of a high risk of dams breaking.
A man clears snow in the Austrian village of Hinterstoder on Saturday. (David Rauscher/AFP/Getty Images)
How many people have died?
At least 12 people have died — six in Romania, two in Poland, three in Austria and one in the Czech Republic — since the rains began Friday, according to officials.
All six deaths were in Galati County, Dan Cristian Ionascu, a spokesperson for the Galati Emergency Situations Inspectorate, told The Washington Post in a text message Monday. One person was missing, Ionascu added.
After visiting Pechea in Galati County, Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said that more than 5,000 homes were affected by the floods. “Nothing can ease the suffering of the people of Pechea,” Ciolacu wrote on Facebook.
In Austria, a firefighter died while working in the floods, Austrian Vice Chancellor Werner Kogler wrote Sunday on X. The firefighter died after “slipping on stairs” while pumping out a flooded basement in the town of Tulln, the head of the fire department of Lower Austria, Dietmar Fahrafellner, told the AP on Sunday.
Graves are flooded at a cemetery in the southwestern Polish town of Brzeszcze on Sunday. (Jakub Wlodek/Agencja Wyborcza.pl/Reuters)
Austrian public broadcaster ORF reported Monday that two men aged 70 and 80 had died in the floodwaters in their homes in the Lower Austria villages of Untergrafendorf and Höbersdorf, respectively.
Infrastructure Minister Dariusz Klimczak confirmed on Polish broadcaster TVN24 that two people had died in the floods: one in the rural municipality of Kłodzko, southwestern Poland, and a second near in the south.Prime Minister Donald Tusk wrote on X Sunday that he had issued a disaster declaration, a step toward requesting European Union aid.
On Monday afternoon, the Polish government also announced a state of natural disaster for 30 days across several flood-affected areas.
In the Czech Republic, Prime Minister Petr Fiala spoke of a “once-in-a-century flood.” One person drowned in the Krasovka River in the Czech district of Bruntal, police confirmed Monday. At least seven people were also missing.
What’s the forecast for Boris?
Flood advisories remained in place across the whole of the Czech Republic and parts of Slovakia as of Monday morning, according to Meteoalarm, a weather tool created by the European Network of National Meteorological Services.Portions of Austria, Germany and Poland were under heavy-rain advisories.
The Danube River in Hungary’s capital, Budapest, was expected to rise during the later part of the week to almost 28 feet, Reuters reported — nearly a foot from the record of 29.2 feet, set in 2013.
The city center of Glucholazy in southern Poland was overwhelmed by floodwaters Sunday. (Sergei Gapon/AFP/Getty Images)
Slobozia Conachi was among the worst-hit areas of Romania. (Daniel Mihailescu/AFP/Getty Images)
Ian Livingston and Amar Nadhir contributed to this report.
By Ben Brasch Ben Brasch is a general assignment reporter for The Washington Post. He is a third-generation native of St. Petersburg, Florida who spent seven years at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution before joining The Post in October 2022. He brings love of listening everywhere — from a frozen lake in Anchorage, Alaska to a burning landfill in Atlanta. Follow on X @ben_brasch
By Praveena Somasundaram Praveena Somasundaram is a reporter on The Washington Post’s General Assignment desk. She started at The Post as an intern in 2022 and has previously reported at the Dallas Morning News and the Charlotte Observer. Follow on X @praveenavsoma
By Kate Brady Kate Brady is a researcher and reporter based in The Washington Post’s Berlin bureau. She has been at The Post since early 2023 and has been reporting from Germany for the best part of a decade. Follow on X @bradyinberlin
More:
Here are more “ETs” recorded from around the planet the last couple of days, their consequences, and some extreme temperature outlooks, as well as any extreme precipitation reports:
Here is more new August 2024 climatology. (More can be found on each daily post during September.):
Here is More Climate News from Monday:
(As usual, this will be a fluid post in which more information gets added during the day as it crosses my radar, crediting all who have put it on-line. Items will be archived on this site for posterity. In most instances click on the pictures of each tweet to see each article. The most noteworthy items will be listed first.)