Floods in Central Europe

Floods in Central Europe

Water broke through a dike along the Danube River on April 24, 2006, and forced about 1,500 people from their homes as it flooded the Romanian countryside near the village of Bistretu, according to news reports. The river had been running high for much of April under the onslaught of melting snow and spring rains, and countries along its entire length faced flooding to various degrees. One of the more severely affected regions is the section of western Romania shown in these images, captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua (top) and Terra (bottom) satellites. The region was extensively flooded on April 21, shown in the lower image, but new flooding is evident near Bistretu by April 25, top.

The images are provided in false color to highlight the presence of water, which is black and dark blue. Vegetation is green, bare ground is tan and pink, and clouds are light blue and white. A photo-like version of both images is available from the MODIS Rapid Response Team.

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