Wet christmas

[Skybird]

Christmas still could get interesting for me. I live in the vicinity of one major and three minor waterways, 1400-4000m away in straight lines. And this is how it looks over here in the South-Eastern outskirts of my hometown. Though not yet as desastrous as during the heavy rain desaster 2014 when most of the total city drowned due to three supercells meeting over the city - and then stopped moving. Its raining over here mostly mildly but constantly since ten days, and more is predicted to come. Driving to my parents on ebike yesterday evening was with gusts of 60-70 km/h in the face, however.

The area some of you may remember from one of my videos ("Essen holen"), east along the river Werse through that idyllic little forest that loked so harmless and tame with meadows near that small river - its all a huge lake now, what was a small river 5-10m wide and shallow, now has swallowed holiday houses, meadows, acres, and in parts is over 3 m deep and in parts reaches hundreds of meters into the neighbouring land. Thankfully between there and my place flows the Dortmund-Ems-Channel, deep wide, fast and steady, washing away much of that eastern flood and transporting it north before it could reach my part of the city. Water has strange ways at times...

Images from the Westfälische Nachrichten. On bike its just a very few minutes to get to these places. The rivers in these images all flow further towards Münster, passing my neighbourhood at just a few hundred meters away.























Water levels are still rising. Every centimeter now counts...

[Dargo]

Same here in the Netherlands. There is a lot of water in streams, ditches and rivers. In the major rivers the peak of the high water has yet to come, it is expected that the water in the rivers Rhine, Waal and IJssel will rise another two meters during the holidays to about 3.5 to 4 meters above normal. This is mainly because there has also been persistent rainfall in Germany in recent weeks. The Rijn and IJssel Water Board expects the water in the Rhine and IJssel to rise at least another two meters. The highest water level is now expected on December 28 when the water in the Rhine at Lobith will rise to almost 15 meters above Amsterdam Ordnance Datum (NAP). The water boards constantly check the condition of the dikes throughout the Netherlands along the rivers in more and more places high water causes inconvenience, but that is all so far we are prepared for this.

[Skybird]

First dike near Hamm (at the river Lippe) has been perforated, water is freely flushing through a widening hole. Throughout the Ruhr industrial area, other dikes are in critical conditons, too. The rivers Ems, Aa and Leine in outskirts of and near my hometown Münster see their levels climbing a centimeter every two to three hours. The Werse is a widenign lake over here. Warendorf 20km east of me has been flooded, Telgte 10 km is on the brink of gettign flooded, two district areas on the south-eastern rim of my hometown that are less than 3 km from my position are to 50% under water, over 1m deep they say.



Not 2014 again, please... Rain is coming for the rest of the week, just maybe not the ammounts anymore that we had the past days. Since the desaster 2014, the city undertook several construction projects to better manage and protect against floodings. Could be that in the coming hours or the next 2-3 days they will be brought to their first test.

[Dargo]

See that the German flood protection is based on Dutch ideas to give more space for rivers natural floodplains that they buffer the course of a flood wave because they store and retain water temporarily so that those areas absorb and retain floodwaters. I am sure all those project will stand the test, we do this for centuries our knowledge is used we spend billions every year to upkeep the dikes, reclamation of natural retention areas, controlled flood retention through flood polders and flood retention basins, and elimination of vulnerabilities.

[mapuc]

It's hard for me to comprehend the magnitude of this. Guess you has to be there to understand the way Nature shows it's face.

Only thing I can say is Be careful, take care.

Markus

[Skybird]

The problem is that we have ongoing rain for days and weeks now. Novembre, Decembre. The soil is incapable to take in any more water, thats why it does not drip down vertically into the soil, but spills horizontally. The upper layers of the ground cannot store any more water anymore - sicne days already, if not weeks.

Theoretically our deep water sweet water reservoirs can use these floods, they have been terribly exhausted over the past 3, 4 years's hot and dry summers and way too little rain over the year. But it takes weeks until rain on the surface reaches these deep layers in the ground now.

Two hundred meters in straight line away from where I live, they have build a dike along the small Aa that runs parrallel to a main taffic road and that got completely drowned 9 years ago, the the river bed was denaturated and new bends and turns got added and reservoire areas added and a pump station got build, connected to the drain. Usually its a small "river" just 1-2 meters wide and so shallow that a Dachshound can stand in it without needing to swim. Its a joke of a river here at this point. Now it is a huge lake, over two meters deep, and some dozen meters wide, and close to the top of the dike's upper rim. It balances there since days. At the current rate of raining, if the dike holds, we will get away, but a bit more intensity in the rain could spell desaster within a few hours. Also, its the sewage that may get overloaded, what drowned my district 9 years ago was not only the water falling down on us (240 l per sqm in two hours), but worse was the water that rose from below our feet and came from the sewage and drains.

Currently no rain. Hope it stays that way. Orkan Zoltan is on his way out, but before he left he really had a party. And its 10-11°C, so no chance that it turns into snow.

The squirrels also are not happy...

[Buddahaid]

Hoping for the best. Stay safe.

[Dargo]

Same here and we lower than you so getting all your water and same wet months. Better get used to it, this will not change in the near future. Keep your feet up and stay safe

[Reece]

Flooding here in the Eastern states of Australia is rather severe, you've probably seen it on TV, and bush fires in the Western parts of Australia are a concern too!! I would assume global warming to blame. I'd rather think this is somehow Putin's fault.

[Ostfriese]

Originally Posted by mapuc

It's hard for me to comprehend the magnitude of this. Guess you has to be there to understand the way Nature shows it's face.

Only thing I can say is Be careful, take care.

Markus

It's actually not THAT bad. Floods like these are not uncommon in December, and in my area most of the flooded areas are actually flood zones, and they become flooded usually once per year anyway. It looks far more dramatic than it actually is. A few people will have their basements flooded, and a lot of roads and bicycle paths will be blocked for some time, but that will be it.



However, due to the dry summers the soil has dried out, and a layer from about 60cm below ground to 150cm below ground (2 - 5 feet) is too dry to quickly absorb water from above. That means that a lot of the water on the surface can only recede slower than usual - which in turn makes the rainfall more problematic than usual.

[Skybird]

It stopped raining! Chances are it stays that way for coming 48 hours

[Jimbuna]

Having lived in Holland I can appreciate what it must be like but Germany?

Stay safe everyone.

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

Having lived in Holland I can appreciate what it must be like but Germany?

Stay safe everyone.

In the northwest of Germany, comparable to Netherlands. Flat and open. Farmland. When you cross the border into Holland all you notice is that the bicycle infrastructure suddenly is much better.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Skybird

In the northwest of Germany, comparable to Netherlands. Flat and open. Farmland. When you cross the border into Holland all you notice is that the bicycle infrastructure suddenly is much better.

Ah, okay, thanks for that and the humour at the end was not lost on me

[Skybird]

Life is absurd. This is at the river Ruhr, near Essen.