Flooding Rába expected to peak at record level on Monday evening

The National Water Management Directorate OVF has mobilised some 400 staff members from across the country to assist with flood defences at the Rába River. The authority has said the river is expected to peak at a record water level at Körmend near the Austrian border on Monday evening.

The weather in the Danube River basin will be determined by a frontal system that will be moving over the next few days. Already on Saturday evening and at night, several places, including the Rába catchment, were affected by an extremely heavy thunderstorm system, which brought down an extraordinary amount of precipitation in a short period of time.

The most extreme rainfall was recorded in the Strém and Pinka catchments, which received almost a month’s worth of rain in just 6 hours. According to the latest forecast, a further 10-20 mm on average is expected today. It is important to note that, although the chances of thunderstorms are foreseeable, their exact location and the exact amount and extent of their rainfall cannot be determined in advance.