MORAVIAN GEOGRAPHICAL REPORTS - Institute of Geonics ...

Vol. 18, 4/2010 MoraVian geographical reports
The Elbe/Labe River in Germany was swollen only
by water coming from Bohemia. Its main German
tributaries Mulde R. and Havel R. did not swell at
all after mild rains and their discharges were at
normal, i.e. they did not contribute to the flood on
the Labe/Elbe River and to damages caused by it.
Thus, the course of the flood in the German section
of the Elbe/Labe River was milder than in Bohemia
although the impact was considerable, too, when
some dam failures were recorded namely in Saxony
and Prussia (Augustin, 1891). On the chateau
Pillnitz near Dresden, high water culminations
have been recorded by flood-marks since 1784.
The flood from September 1890 represents here
(after cases from 1845 and 2002) the third highest
(Fig. 4). In Dresden, the Elbe/Labe R. culminated
on 7 th September 1890 at a water level stage of 837 cm
and discharge of 4,350 m 3 . s −1 , the extreme occupies
the sixth place in the historic table of Dresden floods
recorded since 1501 according to the level height.
As to the Danube River basin, the highest precipitation
amount from 1 – 4 th September 1890 (184 mm) was
recorded at the Kempten station situated on the Iller
R., the right affluent of the Danube R. in Bavaria. The
flood on the Danube R. was of extreme character as
well but did not belong to the most disastrous floods
recorded here. According to the statistics for the
period from 1821 – 1955 from the Austrian profiles
in Linz, Stein-Krems and Wien-Nussdorf, it ranks at
the eighth place by the size of culmination discharge
reaching 7,765 m 3 . s −1 in Vienna on 7 th September 1890.
For a comparison, the first place is occupied by the
flood in September 1899 with a culmination discharge
of 10,500 m 3 . s −1 (Kresser, 1957).
From the water-gauging station in Bratislava
a 130-year series of mean daily discharge values
on the Danube R. is available for the period from
1876 – 2005 (Pekárová et al., 2008). The data were
used to construct a table of the most severe floods
there (Tab. 1), which contains a chronological list
of all cases from the concerned period in which the
mean daily discharge exceeded the value of 8,000
m 3 . s −1 . According to the size of discharge, the flood
of September 1890 ranks at the 13 th place. Similarly
as in Vienna, the most severe floods occurred
there in September 1899 and in the 20 th century in
Fig. 4: Flood-marks on the water pavilion of Pillnitz Chateau near Dresden on the right bank of the Elbe R. The
culmination of the water level of the Elbe R. from 6 September 1890 indicates that this flood represents (after cases
from 2002 and 1845) the third highest (Photo U. Grünewald, distant view www.panoramio.com)
Year Discharge (m 3 . s −1 ) Year Discharge (m 3 . s −1 )
1876 8,166 1920 8,616
1880 8,722 1923 8,685
1883 8,722 1954 10,400
1890 8,227 1965 9,224
1892 8,380 1975 8,715
1897 10,140 1991 9,430
1899 10,870 2002 10,370
Tab. 1: The greatest floods on the Danube R. in Bratislava in 1876 – 2005
Source: Pekárová et al., 2008
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