noaa-historical-17617 River Rhine 740 Year Documentary Flood Reconstruction Wetter, O.; Pfister, C.; Weingartner, R.; Luterbacher, J.; Reist, T.; Trösch, J. River Rhine 740 Year Documentary Flood Reconstruction 2014-12-10 NCDC-Paleoclimatology ONLINE Files Pending https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/study/17617 Investigator O. Wetter Investigator C. Pfister Investigator R. Weingartner Investigator J. Luterbacher Investigator T. Reist Investigator J. Trösch earth science paleoclimate historical age,null,null,year Common Era,null,historical,null,null,N,null earth science paleoclimate historical streamflow,null,null,null,null,historical,null,null,C,flood marks and documentary data describing extreme events with the customary reference to specific landmarks earth science paleoclimate climate reconstructions|historical streamflow,null,range upper bound,cubic meter per second,null,climate reconstructions|historical,null,null,N,Peak discharge maximum estimate earth science paleoclimate climate reconstructions|historical streamflow,null,null,cubic meter per second,null,climate reconstructions|historical,null,null,N,Peak discharge estimate earth science paleoclimate climate reconstructions|historical age,null,null,year Common Era,null,climate reconstructions|historical,null,null,N,null earth science paleoclimate climate reconstructions|historical streamflow,null,range lower bound,cubic meter per second,null,climate reconstructions|historical,null,null,N,Peak discharge minimum estimate earth science paleoclimate historical weather observation earth science paleoclimate historical document geoscientificInformation Streamflow Reconstruction hydrology 1268 AD 2013 AD 682 cal yr BP -63 cal yr BP Complete 47.5601 47.5601 7.5898 7.5898 250 250 Continent Europe Western Europe Switzerland Basel>LATITUDE 47.5601>LONGITUDE 7.5898 None Please cite original publication, online resource, dataset and publication DOIs (where available), and date accessed when using downloaded data. If there is no publication information, please cite investigator, title, online resource, and date accessed. The appearance of external links associated with a dataset does not constitute endorsement by the Department of Commerce/National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of external Web sites or the information, products or services contained therein. For other than authorized activities, the Department of Commerce/NOAA does not exercise any editorial control over the information you may find at these locations. These links are provided consistent with the stated purpose of this Department of Commerce/NOAA Web site. English DOC/NOAA/NESDIS/NCEI National Centers for Environmental Information, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/data-access/paleoclimatology-data DATA Center Contact Bruce Bauer bruce.a.bauer@noaa.gov paleo@noaa.gov 303-497-6280 303-497-6513

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Boulder CO 80305-3328 USA online ASCII Oliver Wetter, Christian Pfister, Rolf Weingartner, Jurg Luterbacher, Tom Reist, and Jurg Trosche 2011 Hydrological Sciences Journal 56 5 733-758 10.1080/02626667.2011.583613 http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02626667.2011.583613#.VJmww886AA

The magnitudes of the largest known floods of the River Rhine in Basel since 1268 were assessed using a hydraulic model drawing on a set of pre-instrumental evidence and daily hydrological measurements from 1808. The pre-instrumental evidence, consisting of flood marks and documentary data describing extreme events with the customary reference to specific landmarks, was "calibrated" by comparing it with the instrumental series for the overlapping period between the two categories of evidence (1808-1900). Summer (JJA) floods were particularly frequent in the century between 1651-1750, when precipitation was also high. Severe winter (DJF) floods have not occurred since the late 19th century despite a significant increase in winter precipitation. Six catastrophic events involving a runoff greater than 6000 m 3 s-1 are documented prior to 1700. They were initiated by spells of torrential rainfall of up to 72 h (1480 event) and preceded by long periods of substantial precipitation that saturated the soils, and/or by abundant snowmelt. All except two (1999 and 2007) of the 43 identified severe events (SEs: defined as having runoff > 5000 and < 6000 m 3 s -1) occurred prior to 1877. Not a single SE is documented from 1877 to 1998. The intermediate 121-year-long "flood disaster gap" is unique over the period since 1268. The effect of river regulations (1714 for the River Kander; 1877 for the River Aare) and the building of reservoirs in the 20th century upon peak runoff were investigated using a one-dimensional hydraulic flood-routing model. Results show that anthropogenic effects only partially account for the "flood disaster gap" suggesting that variations in climate should also be taken into account in explaining these features. STUDY NOTES: Reconstructed peak discharge for the 78 largest known floods of the River Rhine in Basel since 1268, from instrumental and documentary sources. Source references included in the Excel version of this file.

GET DATA https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/historical/europe/switzerland/rhine2011flood.txt Text Data File; River Rhine Flood Reconstruction GET DATA https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/historical/europe/switzerland/rhine2011flood.xls Excel Data File; River Rhine Flood Reconstruction and Documentary Sources USA/NOAA DIF Version 9.8.4 2018-12-11 2018-12-11