Flood Catastrophe Central Europe - Case Study 06 - 13 August 2002

• I. Introduction
• II. Flood Catastrophe 06 - 08 August 2002
• Initial Weather Situation
• Development of Genoa Cyclone
• Floodphase
• III. Flood Catastrophe 10 - 13 August 2002
• Initial Weather Situation: Intrusion of cold air into the western Mediterranean
• Development from Wave into Occlusion stages
• Floodphase
• "5b Path": Propagation of Mediterranean low northeastwards

"5b Path": Propagation of Mediterranean low northeastwards

12 August 2002/00.00 UTC - Meteosat IR image; magenta: height contours 1000 hPa; cyan: height contours 500 hPa; 12 August/00.00 - 13 August/12.00 UTC 6-hourly image Loop

The path of the Mediterranean surface and Upper Level Lows exactly follows that of a classical 5b low, from the Mediterranean over Hungary and E. Austria further to the North across Slovakia and the Czech Republic to Poland. As a consequence of this path and taking into account Stau effects at the mountains, severe weather can be expected over the whole of Austria and surrounding countries. This catastrophic case led to a disastrous flood situation effecting not only the countries mentioned above, but also much of eastern Germany.