Flooding in Germany and Belgium

[gearHed289]

I am hoping that all of our members, and, well, EVERYBODY is OK over in that part of the world. I know many have already been lost, and ten times more still missing. I'm not the prayer type, but sending positive vibes.

https://www.npr.org/sections/pictureshow/2021/07/16/1016796637/germany-belgium-flooding-deaths-climate-change

[4stringer77]

I was thinking about mentioning it too. Wishing the best for everyone as well. Glad to see Uwe posting. Any word from Rob?

[Basvarken]

In The Netherlands the southern province called Limburg is in big trouble.
My mother lives in Limburg in a small village called Baarlo, which is very near to the river Maas.
Half the village has been evacuated. Thousands of people have to find a place to sleep elsewhere.
Luckily my mother lives in a part of the village that lies a bit a higher. She has a few friends who are staying in her apartment today and the next few days, until the water is back to a safer level.

In the city of Venlo (ten kilometers up north from Baarlo) they had to evacuate the hospital which is very close to the river Maas.
The sad thing is when the hospital had just been built (thirty years ago) they had two floodings within two years (1993 an 1995).  Everybody thought it was pretty stupid to build a hospital that close a river.  But the authorities said floodings like these only happen once in 100 years. Well, we're only 26 years further, and yet again they have to evacuate.  Maybe it's time they admit it was not such a good idea to build the hospital in that location...

By the way I live 100 kilometers up north from Baarlo. The extremely heavy rains missed the part where we live.

[uwe]

Thanks for thinking about us.

Like Rob and his family, we're fine. We've had unusually long and heavy rains for July (it's only mid-July, yet the downfall in two weeks has already doubled the figure of precipitation usually reserved for a full month since recording began). But we live in what used to be a swamp and the forest is right across the street, nature hasn't forgotten what to do with all that water. We've had way too little rain in 2019 and 2020, the forest suffered big time (trees tipping over in masses), but now water reserves were replenished quickly. Not living close to a larger river sure helps. It's nice, I understand why people move there, but water is merciless.

That people lose their houses and property, bitter as that is, we've had that before, all that can be replaced, we're a well-to-do country. That hundreds of people die, however, is tragic and a first.

Weather has certainly become more radical in, say, the last five years here. A certain type of weather sticks around a lot longer than it used to, but when changes come, they are abrupt and harsh. We've had storms in recent years here, I've never experienced before in Germany. Stuff flying through the air like in some tornado or hurricane movie.

I'm not one of those people who think that all global warming is man-made - never forget that about 20 km from where I live, dinosaurs roamed in such masses, they are still finding their bones there today. And we had a small ice age in the middle ages, we're still coming out of it.

Climate is constantly changing in all parts of the world, always has. But it's supposed to change gradually, not radically as it does now. So our (and world-wide) fossil energy consumption must contribute. Germany used to be a classic "harsh winter country", but now birds have stopped migrating because our winters are no longer life-threatening to them (the herons that used to travel southward now hang around my pond in winter and eye me - and my fish - mischievously!) We have all kinds of new animal and plant species that have crossed invisible "temperature borders" that always used to be there. We have parrot populations in parks, they survive our mild winters easily by now and increase in size. I'm not saying all this is horrible, species come and species go, nature adapts, eco systems change, but it sure is a sign that something is happening.

[morrow]

I'm thankful you are all coming through this season . We have major fires out west , and we'll probably be looking at some nasty storms rolling up this coast . It seems we're all suffering extreme weather .
It's also hard to believe it's already mid summer .

[Granny Gremlin]

Positive vibes out from here too.  Europe is very prone to flooding due to the high density urban areas on major rivers

We've had unusually long and heavy rains for July (it's only mid-July, yet the downfall in two weeks has already doubled the figure of precipitation usually reserved for a full month since recording began).

This year has been nuts.  We've already had 4 torrential downpours, 1 with hail the size of marbles (but only in the central south eastern part of the city - crazy localised). Usually we get 1 sometimes 2 of those in a whole summer (and hail is rare and usually smaller - last time I recall was over 10 years ago) and the first one is mid -July not the last week of June (it was a fun time at summer camp).  Luckily we are very well drained with the ravine and creek/river systems (mostly left as such, vs filled in and built over) with all of them dumping into Lake Ontario (which for the unfamiliar, is the size of a small inland sea -you can't see the other side, which is NY state), but there was some temporary flooding on the West side where it's a bit flatter/lower, but it receded quickly and had no current sweeping things away, so no deaths/missong people just a few ruined cars.

The craziest bit is that the province has also had 2 tornados already.  We almost never get those, sometimes (once every few years) a baby 5 second one (like just technically qualifies as a tornado) that takes out a farmer's shed and they laugh about on the news.  The one that just struck Barrie took out whole neighborhoods/subdivisions.

[TBird1958]

Pretty dry in Seattle, normal for this time of year, however it was record breaking hot a couple weeks back @109 degrees, highest temp ever here.
 

[BTL]

I wish all who have been impacted the best possible outcome. Planning for anomalous climate events to become regular climate events is something we all need to be more open to, if only because the trend is undeniable.

[exiledarchangel]

Germany used to be a classic "harsh winter country", but now birds have stopped migrating because our winters are no longer life-threatening to them (the herons that used to travel southward now hang around my pond in winter and eye me - and my fish - mischievously!) We have all kinds of new animal and plant species that have crossed invisible "temperature borders" that always used to be there. We have parrot populations in parks, they survive our mild winters easily by now and increase in size. I'm not saying all this is horrible, species come and species go, nature adapts, eco systems change, but it sure is a sign that something is happening.

My neighbor asked me to bring her a small olive tree last summer when coming back from Greece (I live in south Germany btw), at first I was very skeptical about the poor tree trying to survive on this climate, but so far, so good. Maybe 100% bio local German virgin olive oil will be the next big thing on the following years, who knows.