Extreme Floods in Bosnia and Serbia Kill at Least 38

Torrential rains on May 14 - 15 in Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina have caused extreme flooding that has killed at least 38 people, said Reuters today, with the death toll expected to rise once flooding recedes and areas cut off from help are reached. Extratropical Storm Yvette, a strong and slow-moving upper-level low pressure that cut off from the jet stream, lingered over the region for two days, pulling up copious amounts of moisture from the Mediterranean Sea and generating torrential rains. "In three days, as much rain fell as normally falls in three months," said Goran Mihajlovic, of Serbia's Meteorological Institute. "Statistically, such rainfall happens once in 100 years," he added. At least 500,000 of Bosnia's four million people have been evacuated or have left their homes. More than 100,000 buildings have been damaged or destroyed, and more than one million people are without clean water. The floods have been unearthing land mines and bombs left over from the 1992 - 1995 war, one of which showed up in this man's garden, as seen at 1:25 into the video.

The same high-amplitude jet stream pattern that contributed to the heavy rains over Bosnia and Serbia last week is now bringing record May heat to portions of Russia, Finland, and Estonia today. In St. Petersburg, Russia, the mercury climbed to 32.7°C (91°F) on Monday afternoon, beating the former May all-time record of 30.9°C set in 1958, according to weather records researcher Maximiliano Herrera.


Figure 1. Aerial view of the flooded area near the Bosnian town of Brcko along the river Sava, taken May 18, 2014. (AP Photo/Bosnia Army)


Figure 2. Though the heavy rains have ceased, many rivers in Serbia and Bosnia will continue rising this week, as rain-swollen tributaries pour into main rivers. The Sava River in Beograd (Belgrade), Serbia is forecast to continue rising through Friday, May 23, but is below the all-time flood height of 738 cm set on April 16, 2006. The Sava upstream from Belgrade at Sabac crested at an all-time record height on Sunday, May 18, 2014 (flood stage records go back to 1946.) There are concerns that the Sava River 18 miles downstream of Belgrade will overwhelm the flood defenses of Serbia's largest power plant, the coal-fired Nikola Tesla complex, which provides half of the nation's power. Image credit: Republic Hydrometeorological Service of Serbia.


Video 1. A landslide destroys a house in Bosnia in the wake of extreme flooding that hit the nation on May 15 - 16, 2014. At least 3,000 landslides were spawned by the torrential rains that hit Bosnia and Serbia. Thanks go to wunderground member barbamz for posting this video and the Sava River water level link in the comments section of my blog.

Jeff Masters