Major Flash Flooding Event Slams Parts of Western Austria and Beyond! (credit: Meteo Europe)8/6/2017 
DISCUSSION: Over the past 24 to 36 hours, a small (but potent) piece of mid-level energy propagated across portions of west-central Europe and moved across areas which included (but were certainly not limited to) far western Austria, eastern Switzerland, and far southern sections of Germany. Across many cities/towns located in these parts of those respective countries there was a clear focal point for strong convection which fired up during the day on Saturday. Having said that, there was also a consistent explanation for the particularly focused nature of this regional European flooding (and in some cases the flash flooding) event which unfolded during the day on Saturday. This explanation can be best characterized by the areas of elevated terrain helping to facilitate the greater likelihood of heavier rainfall on a more localized scale. This is due to the fact that the more elevated terrain across these parts of those respective countries forces air parcels to more abruptly move up and over such topographic barriers (e.g., hills, plateaus, mountain ridges, etc.).
During such orographic-enhancement of precipitating-clouds, there is even more liquid water "squeezed" out of developing convection via increased instability due to the air parcels rising and being forced to expand more and more with increasing height. Thus, this favorable convective combination allowed for notably heavier rainfall to unfold in cities such as Tux, Austria as captured in the raw footage above. Events such as the major flash flooding event captured above just yesterday afternoon (local time in western Austria), reinforce the importance of always remaining weather-ready at all times regardless of your location, plans, or individual circumstances prior to or during the occurrence of the flooding. To learn more about other high-impact flooding events from around the world, be sure to click here! ©2017 Meteorologist Jordan Rabinowitz
0 Comments
 On Saturday, July 31, 1976, several hundred tourists and locals were enjoying a beautiful summer afternoon in the resort town of Estes Park in northern Colorado. A stationary front (when warm and cold air masses meet and neither is strong enough to move the other) had settled in an east-west fashion across Colorado, Kansas, and Missouri. Warm, moist air was forced up the Front Range and the unstable air continued rising as the water vapor condensed, becoming conditionally unstable (where the air is unstable if saturated but stable if saturated).
Light rain began falling over the Colorado Rockies during the late afternoon. By 7:35 p.m., the National Weather Service had issued a severe thunderstorm warning. Around 9:00 p.m., the National Weather Service issued an urgent warning to expect flooding in the Big Thompson Canyon, but the warning came too late for most. At this point, 12 inches of rain had fallen within the last four hours and sent a 20-foot wall of water down the narrow canyon, causing flood waters to speed up as they squeezed through. (According to the Bernoulli principle fluids speed up as they are forced through a tight space due to an increase in pressure). Weaker winds aloft made the thunderstorm nearly stationary near the upper section of the canyon. Rex Sheets of Loveland, Colorado was driving with his friend up towards Lake Estes to go fishing on July 31st. A state patrolman began driving up the canyon during the early evening hours to warn others of the storm. The frame of his car was later found with the steering wheel attached and his keys still in the ignition. The patrolman’s body was never recovered. The amount of rain that fell in that short amount of time made it so that the rain wasn’t able to soak into the canyon sidewalls. Boulders the size of cars were carried down the river by the floodwaters and houses were transported on top of bridges. The flood caused $35 million in damage, destroyed 418 homes, and claimed the lives of 143 people. To learn more about flooding and flood safety, please click here! © 2017 Meteorologist Sharon Sullivan |
Archives
August 2022
|
RSS Feed