Floods in Central Europe

Floods in Central Europe

Heavy rains and melting snow have pushed rivers across Central Europe over their banks. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this image of dramatic flooding on the Tisza and Bodrog Rivers of Hungary and Slovakia on April 3, 2006. The lower image was taken by the MODIS sensor on NASA’s Aqua satellite and shows the region nearly two weeks earlier before the floods started. In the images, water is dark blue, clouds are pale blue and white, plants are bright green, bare earth is pink and tan, and snow is turquoise. According to the Associated Press, swelling rivers from the Danube to the Elbe have forced hundreds of people from their homes throughout the Czech Republic, Germany, and Hungary. Daily images of Central Europe are available from the MODIS Rapid Response Team.

NASA images courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC.