Suggested Searches

2 min read

Spring Floods in Central Europe

Instruments:
Topics:
2005-04-23 00:00:00
April 23, 2005

Heavy rains brought on widespread flooding across western Romania and northern Serbia, particularly along the Timis River. The floods are clearly visible in these images, collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA�s Terra satellite on April 23, 2005, (top) and April 16, 2005 (bottom). Presented in false color to increase the contrast between water and the surrounding landscape, the images show water in dark blue, vegetation in green, bare earth in brown, and clouds and snow in light blue.

In the week that passed between April 16 and April 23, the Timis River has swollen to cover wide tracts of land, with the worst of the flooding in Romania just east of the border. According to media reports, the floodwaters seen here cover 30,000 hectares of farmland and as many as 2,500 houses. Across the border in Serbia, 700 houses have been completely flooded, and 100 houses have been destroyed, reports the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent.

Flooding is apparent along other rivers in the region. The Caras River has expanded, as have a number of smaller rivers between the Caras and the Timis River. The storms that filled the rivers also brought new snow to the mountains of Romania, which are covered in light blue snow on April 23.

References & Resources

NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data obtained from the MODIS Rapid Response team.

You may also be interested in:

Stay up-to-date with the latest content from NASA as we explore the universe and discover more about our home planet.

Rains Swamp the Gandak River
3 min read

After days of torrential rain, the river rose to record-breaking levels in parts of Nepal and India.

Article
Floodwaters Overwhelm Thailand
2 min read

Heavy rains since mid-September have caused widespread flooding that has affected millions of people across the country.

Article
The Beaver Brown Waters of Rupert Bay 
4 min read

Dissolved organic matter and suspended sediment mingle in the southernmost extent of James Bay.

Article