The Danube River overflowed its banks in Budapest on Thursday, with water levels reaching their highest level in a decade, Reuters reports.
Hungary’s General Directorate of Water Management said water levels in the Danube reached 6.93 metres on Wednesday, down from 8.91 metres recorded in 2013, when extreme flooding hit central Europe after heavy rains in late May. Heavy rain and snow following the mild weather triggered unusually early winter flooding.
Experts warn that climate change could make early floods more frequent, although this year’s flooding on the Danube did not cause major damage in Budapest. Climate researcher Anna Kis, who works for the “1.5 degrees” climate project, noted:
“If we look at the bigger picture, we can see that winter precipitation is growing and with the rise of temperatures we will see less snowfall plus it can melt earlier. Thus we can assume that in the future the floods caused by snow melting that used to occur in the spring could happen earlier, possibly during the winter months.”
The Water Resources Authority says the last time the Danube level exceeded 6 metres for the month of December was in 1987, but it did not flood the embankment roads then. It said, adding that renewed flooding in the spring could not be excluded:
“There was a great amount of rainfall in the tributaries of the Danube and snow melted due to the mild but wet weather, so the flood came earlier.”
