MORAVIAN GEOGRAPHICAL REPORTS - Institute of Geonics ...

MoraVian geographical reports 4/2010, Vol. 18
2. Flood in September 1890
Causes, behaviour and impact of this extreme flood
in the Labe/Elbe River basin were described and
documented in details already in the past – both
in occasional historic prints and in expert studies.
The publication of the Prague professor František
Augustin titled “The Flood of 1890 in Bohemia”
(Augustin 1891) appeared as early as in 1891. The
same author described the hydrometeorological
extreme in broader relations of Central Europe in
the German journal Meteorologische Zeitschrift in
an article “Rains and floods in September 1890 to the
north of the Alps” (Augustin, 1892). To commemorate
the 100 th anniversary of this extreme flood, a scientific
conference was held in Prague at the beginning of
September 1990, which was focused primarily on the
flood control.
The main cause of this extreme flood were abundant
rains that continued from 1 – 4 th September 1890 and
affected a vast territory of Central Europe, especially
the Labe/Elbe River basin (in it mostly the Vltava/
Moldau River basin) and an adjacent part of the Danube
River basin. The synoptic situation, that induced
the extreme and several days lasting precipitation
was described already by F. Augustin (1891, 1892),
but neither aerological measurements nor upper-air
charts existed of course in those times. According to
Kakos and Kulasová (1990), a likely reason to heavy
rains was the upper-level low, which more or less
persisted during four days over Central Europe. The
22
highest four-day precipitation amount (245 mm) in
the territory of Bohemia – at that time observed here
on 715 precipitation stations, surprisingly more than
at present – was recorded on the Sofienschloss station
(749 m a.s.l.) in the watershed of Malše/Maltsch
River near the Vltava R. and Danube R. divide. The
size of the flood was significantly influenced by the
fact that the above-mentioned rain was preceded by
the extremely wet summer, which caused extensive
saturation of the territory with water and reduced its
retention capacity.
This precipitation, of course, induced extreme floods
that caused large damage. In Prague, the water
inundated lower-situated parts of the town and
some 4,000 houses were flooded. The disaster claimed
several tens of human lives (Fig. 1 – see cover p. 4).
However, the greatest casualty was considered
the breakage of the Charles Bridge (Fig. 2),
where the culmination discharge of the Vltava
R. reached 3,980 m 3 . s −1 on 4 th September 1890,
which is in total counts the fourth largest assessed
flood in Prague (recorded within a period of
more than 200 years) and the second greatest
summer flood after the extreme flood disaster of
August 2002 (Fig. 3 – see cotver p. 4). Discharge in the
terminal Czech profile of the Labe/Elbe River in Děčín
on 6 th September 1890 amounted to 4,450 m 3 . s −1 ,
which represents until these days the fourth greatest
disaster after the floods of 1845, 1862 and 2002 (from
the period of instrumental measurements, of course).
Fig. 2: The catastrophic flood on the Vltava/Moldau R. in September 1890 was the last one to damage the Charles
Bridge in Prague. Two of its arches were torn apart on the third day of flooding – 4 September 1890 – as a result of
the accumulation of a large amount of logs (Collection of M. Deutsch)