Case studies

Intense Snowfall events in Germany in 2023

End of November and at the beginning of December 2023, Germany was faced with wide-spread and intense snowfall, leading to an elevated risk of flooding when snow started to melt. The present case study assesses the quality of HSAF SWE-H (in the following referred to as H65) data, compared to other data products for daily estimates of snow-water equivalent (SWE) on point-scale and catchment scale (1,000 to 10,000 km^2).
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Extreme floods in Libya and Central Greece

In September 2023, a destructive Mediterranean cyclone caused severe storms in the eastern Mediterranean regions. It first hit Greece, Bulgaria and Turkey bringing heavy rain causing extensive flooding and casualties. In the following days it intensified, moving towards the Libyan coast where two dams collapsed resulting in flooding that caused thousands of deaths.
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Active precipitation zone during September 2022 in Belgium

An active precipitation zone associated with frontal activity around a low-pressure system moving north of Belgium is analyzed by using weather radar and H SAF precipitation products. The main characteristic of the precipitation event was a large number of intense showers that affected the country on September 8 and 9, 2022.
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Pakistan's devastating 2022 floods

More than 1700 people were killed, 33 million affected, and more than two million homes were damaged or destroyed. It was one of the costliest natural disasters ever recorded. Communities in affected regions continue to face humanitarian emergencies. Comments by the Remote Sensing Expert, Dr. Wolfgang Wagner.
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Severe flooding in Nigeria

In October 2022, flooding in the country’s south submerged homes and farmland, and displaced hundreds of thousands of people. After prolonged and intense rains, widespread flooding affected 27 out of the 36 Nigerian states, inundating houses and streets. Transport was affected for at least two weeks, and food and fuel supplies blocked. More than 500 casualties were reported.
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Heavy rain and flooding event on 12-12-2021 in South Bulgaria

Assessment of 24h accumulated values of heavy rain in South Bulgaria through comparison between satellite products and measured data.
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Mesoscale Convective System (MSC) over central Italy

On 8 September 2022 a Mesoscale Convective System (MCS) hit three regions of central Italy.
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South Africa Flood (11-13 April 2022)

The city of Durban, in South Africa, is particularly Vulnerable to heavy rainfall; in the coastal area, in the first 13 days of April 2022, almost 200mm of cumulative rainfall were reached.
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Mediterranean cyclone 2021

Event report 24-29 October 2021, over Sicily (South Italy).
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Devastating floods in western Europe

A slow moving upper-level low brought devastating floods to parts of north west Germany and other parts of western Europe in July 2021.
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Snow-drought conditions in early 2023 seen from H-SAF satellites

Winter 2022-2023 was characterized by yet again dry and warm conditions across several regions of Europe. Through the newly established snow-drought observatory from satellites within the drought working group of the H SAF initiative, we document significant deficit in snow cover, patchy snow conditions, and a late start of the season in early 2023 across Mediterranean Europe.
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H05 - Raingauge 10-years precipitation normals for estimation dry/wet periods over Slovakia and central European region (July 2012 - June 2022)

A record of 10-year accumulated H SAF precipitation data in comparison with data of a raingauge network from the period 2012-2022 on a monthly basis is used to evaluate precipitation anomalies over Slovak territory according DRY/NORMAL/WET rain characteristics.
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European drought of summer 2022

H SAF precipitation and soil moisture products capture drought conditions over Europe during the summer of 2022.
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Monsoon floods in Pakistan

Since the beginning of June, Pakistan has seen major flooding associated with the 2022 monsoon.
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2021-2022 snow deficit in Italy leads to serious drought

Between fall 2021 and winter 2022, Italy experienced a very dry and warm period, which led to a significant negative anomaly in snow accumulation.
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Case study: Northern Italy drought (Jan-Apr 2022)

In the hydrological year 2021-2022 northern Italy has experienced a very dry period, in terms of both liquid and solid precipitation, and also 2021 was a moderately dry year.
The impact of water scarcity is evident in the different compartments (soil, rivers, reservoirs).
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