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WEATHER

Germany braces for more torrential rain as some areas hit by severe flooding

Saxony, Bavaria and North Rhine-Westphalia have all been struck by torrential downpour as the German Weather Service issued its highest possible warning. The heavy rain is expected to last until Friday.

Published: 14 July 2021 12:28 CEST
Germany braces for more torrential rain as some areas hit by severe flooding
Firefighters search for a missing man in Jöhstadt, Saxony. Photo: picture alliance/dpa/dpa-Zentralbild | Andre März

Germany was once against struck by flash floods on Tuesday evening as emergency services struggled to cope with overflowing cellars and flooded streets along both the eastern and western borders of the country. 

Earlier in the day, the German Weather Service (DWD) had issued its most severe weather warning possible between Eifel and the Mosel Valley in North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate due to extremely heavy continuous rain.

READ ALSO: IN PICTURES: Devastating storm rips through southern and western Germany

Until Thursday morning, rainfall of 70 to 120 litres per square metre can be expected, DWD said on Wednesday morning.

“The risk of flooding is growing regionally,” they said.

In North Rhine-Westphalia, too, the fire brigade had to pump out numerous cellars that had been flooded during the storm. 

“The people are desperate,” the spokesman for the Hagen police headquarters told DPA. Muddy debris from landslides also washed onto roads from slopes and blocked off several routes between cities.

One resident of Nimmertal in the district of Hagen shared a video of a gushing stream: “That was once our driveway,” he said.

Man declared missing in Saxony 

The eastern state of Saxony also fell victim to thunderstorms and flash flooding overnight on Tuesday. In the town of Jöhstadt, near the Polish border, a man was swept away in the floods as he tried to secure his house against the overflowing river, DPA reported. 

His neighbours made several rescue attempts but were unable to help him. 

The eastern fire brigade called off the initial search during the night, local police told DPA. No further details were available at the time of writing. 

‘Disaster’ declared in Bavaria

Late on Tuesday evening, a disaster was declared in the Hof district in Bavaria because of the torrential downpour. The emergency services were so overwhelmed by calls that many people struggled to reach the emergency 112 number, the Bavarian Red Cross told DPA. 

More than 50 fire brigades with almost 1,000 people and 140 members of the Technical Relief Organization (THW) were called up throughout the night to pump water from cellars and to procure sandbags. The Bavarian city of Selbitz was particularly hard hit by the storm, with emergency services called out 120 times during the night.

Streets and cellars were flooded, trees fell, and in some cases the power went out. Fire detectors also sounded the alarm. The fire brigade and their helpers worked all night, said a spokesman for the Hof fire department told DPA in the morning.

READ ALSO: German phrase of the day: Als hätte der Himmel seine Schleusen geöffnet

The northern German states were spared the worst of the flooding, but in Berlin, one observer filmed a bolt of lightening as it struck the top of the TV tower during an overnight thunderstorm.

Heavy rain and thunderstorms until Friday

Though the situation has now calmed down, torrential rain is likely to continue, particularly across parts of North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate, until Thursday, the German Meteorological Service had announced the day before.

READ ALSO: ANALYSIS: What’s going on with Germany’s weather right now?

Meteorologists expect heavy rain and thunderstorms across the country until at least Friday.

Vocabulary

Flash flood – (die) Sturzflut

Heavy rain – (der) Starkregen

Rescue attempt – (der) Rettungsversuch 

Rescue teams – (die) Rettungskräfte

We’re aiming to help our readers improve their German by translating vocabulary from some of our news stories. Did you find this article useful? Let us know.

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CLIMATE CRISIS

Record heat deaths and floods: How Germany is being hit by climate change

Germany was further confronted with extreme weather conditions and their consequences last year. With this summer likely to break records again, a new report shows the impact climate change is having.

Published: 22 April 2024 11:28 CEST
Record heat deaths and floods: How Germany is being hit by climate change

In 2023, more days of extremely high temperatures were recorded than at any time since records began, the European climate change service Copernicus and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) wrote in a joint report published on Monday. 

The records go back to 1940 and sometimes even further.

“2023 has been a complex and multifaceted year in terms of climate hazards in Europe,” said Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) Director Carlo Buontempo. “We have witnessed widespread flooding, but also extreme forest fires with high temperatures and severe droughts.” 

These events have put a strain on natural ecosystems, and have also challenged agriculture, water management and public health.

According to the report, around 1.6 million people were affected by floods last year, and more than half a million people were affected by storms. The weather- and climate-related damage is estimated at well over 10 billion euros. “Unfortunately, these numbers are unlikely to decrease in the near future,” Buontempo said, referring to ongoing human-caused climate change.

Heat turns deadly, even in Germany

Averaged across Europe, 11 months of above-average warmth were recorded last year, with September being the warmest since records began in 1940. 

A record number of days with so-called extreme heat stress, i.e. perceived temperatures of over 46C, was also registered. 

As a result of higher temperatures, the number of heat-related deaths has risen by an average of 30 percent over the past 20 years.

According to the Robert Koch Institute, at least 3,100 deaths in Germany were linked to heat in the first nine months of 2023.

“In some cases, for example heat stroke, heat exposure leads directly to death, while in most cases it is the combination of heat exposure and pre-existing conditions that leads to death,” RKI explained in a statement, adding that women tend to be affected more than men due to higher proportion of women in older age groups.

In Germany temperatures above 30C are considered a heatwave. As weather patterns change due to human-caused climate change, heat waves have increased in number and length.

READ ALSO: How German cities are adapting to rising temperatures

Historically Germany hasn’t faced so many severe heatwaves each year, and central air conditioning is not commonly found in the country. In cities across the Bundesrepublik, heat plans are being drafted and refined to try and prepare for further extreme heat events in the near future.

Delivery van stuck in flood

A delivery van stranded in flood water during a storm surge near the fish market in Hamburg last winter. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Bodo Marks
 

Warming oceans and mountains and more rain

On average, the seas around Europe’s coasts were warmer than at any time since at least 1980. 

READ ALSO: Colder winters and refugees – How changing ocean currents could impact Germany

It was also much too warm on the glaciers in 2023. “After the record ice loss in 2022, it was another exceptional year of loss in the Alps,” Copernicus and WMO wrote. In these two years, the glaciers in the Alps lost around 10 percent of their volume.

Interestingly, the excess meltwater may be boosting hydroelectricity production in the short term. According to the report, conditions for the production of green electricity in 2023 were very favourable, with its share of the total electricity mix at 43 percent, the highest seen so far.

Overall, seven percent more rain fell last year than average. It was one of the wettest years on record, the report said. 

In one third of the river network in Europe, water volumes have been recorded that exceeded the flood threshold. There were severe floods in Italy and Greece, among other places, and parts of northern Germany were affected at the end of the year.

Hamburg and the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein were among regions hardest hit by floods in Germany last year. Northern sections of the Elbe river rose high enough to submerge Hamburg’s fish market several times among other places.

READ ALSO: Germany hit by floods as October heat turns into icy spell

2024 likely to continue breaking heat records

The recent report by Copernicus and the World Meteorological Organization is in agreement with a UN report published last month, which noted that last year came at the end of “the warmest 10-year period on record” according to the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO).

“There is a high probability that 2024 will again break the record of 2023”, WMO climate monitoring chief Omar Baddour said, according to Science Alert.

Another year of record breaking high temperatures means Germany can likely expect more and longer heatwaves in the late spring, summer and early autumn seasons. Higher average temperatures are also correlated with an increase in extreme weather events like extreme storms and floods in parts of the country.

In drier parts of Europe it means an increase in droughts and wildfires.

With reporting by DPA.

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