Floods in Serbia and Bosnia

I have been abroad for two weeks and was off-line. Sadly, the recent weather development over Serbia and Bosnia (weather history was covered by two posts, a couple of weeks ago; here and here) was severe. I want to briefly cite a statement of the German Weather Service as of May 16:

Schwere Unwetter in Südosteuropa – Das Satellitenbild zeigt die Wolkenspirale eines für die Jahreszeit ungewöhnlich heftigen Sturmtiefs über dem Balkan. Warme und feuchte Mittelmeerluft schiebt sich über kalte Polarluft. Die Folge waren extreme Regenfälle in Serbien, in der Region um Belgard sowie im Nordosten von Bosnien-Herzegowina. Die Karte zeigt die 24-stündigen Niederschlagsmengen. Gebietsweise sind innerhalb von 2 Tagen über 180 Liter/qm Niederschlag gefallen, die zu Erdrutsche und Überschwemmungen führten. Normal sind dort Niederschlagsmengen von etwa 70 Liter/qm im ganzen Mai. Das Regengebiet ist nach Nordwesten abgezogen. Derzeit konzentrieren sich der Niederschlag auf den Nordstau der österreichischen Alpen von Salzburg bis zur Rax. Dort kamen ebenfalls bereits über 100 Liter/qm Niederschlag zusammen.

Here are some images, illustrating the situation:

Surface pressure distribution from GFS analysis as of May 15.

Surface pressure distribution from GFS analysis as of May 16.

Satellite image showing the cyclone as of May 15, 15:00 UTC.

Total Precipitation in mm , May 11-17, 2014, computer generated contours, based on preliminary data. Source: NOAA.

24-hrs rainfall sums as of May 15, 06:00 UTC. Source: DWD.

In a former post, I had a look at gauge Veliko Selo in Serbia. Here is an update:

Stage hydrograph for gauge Veliko Selo/Mlava as of May 23, 2014. Source: Republic Hydrometeorological Service of Serbia.

For some areas of Serbia, the was the third major event in 2014 (April, first decade of May, mid-May). Whereas the event in the first May decade was quite locally, the recent event hit large areas of Serbia and Bosnia and was much more devastating than the April event (which was also a bit more focussed on smaller catchments).

As a consequence, also the large stream systems (e.g., the Sava) featured a major (~100-year) flood flow:

Stage hydrograph for gauge Sabac/Sava as of May 23, 2014. Source: Republic Hydrometeorological Service of Serbia.

Here are two well-written Wikipedia articles with further information: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balkantief_Yvette and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Southeast_Europe_floods.

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