Figure 1: Number of EFAS formal (red), informal (orange) and flash flood (blue) notifications issued in 2018
Figure 1: Number of EFAS formal (red), informal (orange) and flash flood (blue) notifications issued in 2018

by EFAS dissemination centre

Figure 1 shows the number of formal, informal and flash flood notifications issued each month throughout 2018. With a total number of 563 EFAS notifications 2018 was the busiest of the past five years for the EFAS consortium. Compared to 2017 the Dissemination Center issued 130% more formal, 59% more informal and 53% more flash flood notifications. March was the most active month with 127 notifications, which is about 22% of the total number of notifications of 2018. April saw the most formal notifications issued, while the period from June till September was very quiet in terms of flood notifications. In total 148 formal, 97 informal and 318 flash flood notifications were issued in 2018.

Remarkable periods in 2018 were the first 3 weeks of March, with large spread floods over the Iberian Peninsula, the Baltic states and the Balkan as well as the first half of April with numerous flood signals in Spain and Russia.

For comparison, Figure 2 indicates the total number of EFAS notifications issued per year for the past 6 years. 2018 was a very wet year for all three types of notifications. The number of flash flood notifications was almost the same as in the year 2016.

Figure 2: Total number of EFAS formal (red), informal (orange) and flash flood (blue) notifications issued per year from 2013-2018
Figure 2: Total number of EFAS formal (red), informal (orange) and flash flood (blue) notifications issued per year from 2013-2018

Figure 3 breaks down the number of notifications over the past 6 years into seasons (December-January-February [DJF], March-April-May [MAM], June-July-August [JJA] and September-October-November [SON]).

The most active seasons in terms of river flooding over the past 6 years are the winter (DJF) of 2016, the spring (MAM) of 2018 and the autumn (SON) of 2016.

Figure 3: Number of EFAS (red), informal (orange) and flash flood (blue) notifications issued per season over the past 5 years (2017)
Figure 3: Number of EFAS (red), informal (orange) and flash flood (blue) notifications issued per season over the past 5 years (2017)

Based on the number of notifications issued from 2013-2018, the most formal flood notifications are issued in spring (29 per year on average), informal notifications in winter (27 per year on average) and flash flood notifications in autumn (82 per year on average). The season with the fewest formal notifications is the summer (about 6 per year on average).

In 2018 in total 31 countries received 562 notifications (147 formal, 97 informal and 318 flash flood notifications). Just like the year before, Spain received the highest number of notifications (21 formal, 33 informal and 88 flash flood notifications). The most formal notifications were sent to Russia (24), followed by France and Spain (21), the most informal notifications to Spain (33) and the most flash flood notifications to Spain (88), followed by France (58) and the UK (30).