Impacted Countries

• UK 12-14 July

• France 12-16 July

• Belgium 15-17 July

• Netherlands 15-16 July

• Luxembourg 14-17 July

• Germany 16-19 July

• Austria 17 July

• Romania 18-20 July

Secondary events between 24th & 27

• Switzerland 24-25 July

• Croatia 

• Czechia

• Italy 27 JULY

Movement of the Flooding

The initial period of flooding was seen in the UK on the 12 July 2021 with flash flooding across south and east England with the most severe flash flooding in London where the region received more than an average monthly precipitation in the space of 24 hours. The heavy downpour led to urban flooding as a result of drainage backup with sewers overflowing, even resulting in the closure of tube stations as well as the evacuation of 120 residents from at-risk regions. The intense period of downpours, however, were short lived with the COL migrating westerly from the UK by 14 July 2021, bringing with it the conditions for further flooding throughout Europe.

Following the UK the COL first brought extreme weather conditions to France and with areas reporting levels of precipitation that exceeded the average monthly precipitation for the region bringing with it flash flooding events that were noted across the north, northeast and eastern France in the Grand-Est, Hauts-de-France and Bourgogne-Franche-Comté regions. With many fluvial systems across these areas including the Seille and Brienne rivers experiencing 50 year flood events, fortunately there were no deaths recorded throughout France. 

During the same period that France experienced flooding the COL made its presence known across Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands. In Luxembourg between the 14th and 17th July hundreds of people were evacuated in Echternach and Rosport as well as many losing electricity across the country. On the 15th July all residents of the 200,000 population city of Liege were urged to evacuate with neighbouring areas of limburg also being advised to evacuate due to fears of flooding from the River Meuse. Following a high precipitation event the Meuse broke its banks leading to widespread damage across Belgium including the deaths of 42 people as well as damage to infrastructure and housing with 41,000 houses in the region being left without electricity or potable water. While in the Netherlands more than 10,000 people in the city of Venlo were evacuated as a dyke located on the Juliana canal, located near the River Meuse, broke leading to an estimated damage of €400 million in the town of Valkenburg aan de Geul alone. However, costly the damages from the flood event there were no deaths recorded as a result of the flooding in the Netherlands.

The COL brought the extreme precipitation events to Germany between 16th and 19th July during this time precipitation was reported to be the highest on record for many areas in over a century, possibly even the highest level of precipitation in the last 1000 years. As a result of the extreme levels of precipitation flooding was seen throughout the country mainly focused in west and southern Germany. During the period of flooding approximately 184 people died, making this the deadliest natural disaster in Germany since the North Sea flood of 1962, with many more still not located after going missing during the flooding. Following the flooding across the country there were further disasters with a major landslide in Blessem occurring as a result of floodwaters from the river Erft inundating a quarry in the region leading to the deaths of several people. During this same period Austria and Romania experienced similar extreme weather conditions leading to flooding. In Austria flash flooding occurred along the German border with single death occurring in the town of Saalbach-Hinterglemm. Romania experienced extreme precipitation with 220 L/m² of precipitation falling within five hours this led to flooding across the country with 2 deaths occurring as a result of flooding in Satu Mare and Iasi counties while 18 other counties across Romania experienced flooding.

Following on from the initial wave of flooding events that swept their way across Europe a secondary period of turbulent weather that arrived in the wake of the first events occurred beginning on 24th July, 4 days after the end of the events in Romania, in Switzerland with flash flooding occurring. This occurred over the period of a day bringing torrential downpours from thunderstorms that resulted in minor flooding throughout a large portion of the country with the flooding of roads being seen frequently. The worst events occurred in Lucerne Canton where flooding resulted in vehicles being swept along the streets and into the Kleine Emme river. Following on from Switzerland three other countries experienced flooding between the 25th and 27th July with reports of flooding in Croatia, Czechia and Italy.