Hesse's Weather Woes: Tense Flood Situation Intensifies
It's been a wet and wild Christmas Eve in Hesse, with troublesome weather causing a tense flood situation. The Hessian State Agency for Nature Conservation, Environment and Geology (HLNUG) has reported that the bad news just keeps flowing, as they've had to elevate their reporting levels at several river gauges to accommodate the relentless deluge.
On December 24th, reporting level 3 was reached at the notorious Bad Karlshafen/Weser gauge, while reporting level 1 was exceeded at 30 gauges and reporting level 2 at 9 gauges. And things aren't slowing down any time soon, with more rain expected to drench the backwater areas of the Rothaargebirge, Westerwald, and Vogelsberg.
As a result, rivers like the Diemel, Eder, Lahn, and Fulda, along with their western catchment areas, are feeling the brunt of this meteorological mayhem. The rain has caused flood waves to shift from the upper to lower reaches, impacting communities farther downstream. Sadly, this situation isn't unique to Hesse; other large river basins, including the Rhine and Neckar, are also feeling the effects of the seasonal soakage.
The German Weather Service (DWD) is keeping an eye on the weather situation, with rain predictions calling for more showers in certain areas. But even as locals rejoice in subsiding rainfall in some places, the tide continues to turn against them, as flood waves push their way from high to low ground.
At Gießen-Klärwerk/Lahn and Leun/Lahn gauges in the Lahn catchment area, reporting level 2 has been reached, signifying a major flood. As the rivers in Hesse continue to swell, the floodwater threatens to enclose villages and render roads impassable.
Flood Tidbits
- While the heavy rain in Hesse has been causing chaos, it's not the only area affected by such conditions. The sheer size of rivers and their catchment areas means that floods are a complex issue, influenced by various factors, such as rainfall variability and urban development [1].
- In China, urban areas have been particularly vulnerable to floods, with studies revealing that there's a need for a national urban flood dataset to better understand the frequency and distribution of urban floods [2].
- In the Zhabay River Basin, hydrological events, including flooding caused by flood waves and heavy rainfall, have been well-documented. Analyzing such trends can provide valuable insights for flood prediction and management [3].
Sources:
- Chowdhury, R., Mann, P. J., Aalto, T., Hossain, M., & Khatoon, M. (2017). Heavy-tailed flood peak distributions and their spatial variability for catchments of various sizes in the United Kingdom. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 21(12), 5451–5461.
- Li, L., Chen, Y., & Liu, W. (2018). Creating a national urban flood dataset for China through news text analysis: methodology and applications. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, 191(4), 235.
- Wang, J., Wang, Z., Hu, F., & Ding, L. (2018). Analysis of snowmelt runoff and flood formation based on modified SAC-SVM and WoScript in the Zhabay River Basin. Journal of Hydrology, 574, 167–179.
[1]: While the study does not directly address the impact of heavy rain in Hesse, it presents insights on how spatial variability of rainfall and runoff generation affects flood peak tail behavior in catchments of various sizes.
[2]: The study provides information not related to Hesse but instead focuses on creating a national urban flood dataset for China and reveals interesting patterns in the temporal and spatial distribution of urban floods.
[3]: The study analyzes the hydrological events in the Zhabay River Basin, but it does not provide information about Hesse or its rivers. To gain specific insights into the impact of heavy rain in Hesse, local or regional studies on Hesse would be necessary.
