View from the beautiful red wine trail, copyright: Silke Trömel
On 14 July 2021 Western Germany and the neighboring countries Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands experienced heavy rainfall with catastrophic consequences. The long-lasting intense stratiform rain caused extreme precipitation amounts above 160 mm over a region of the German states Rhineland-Palatinate and North-Rhine-Westphalia, and led to extreme floods especially but not only in the Ahr river (see also Oltermann 2021, Chen et al. 2022, Landesamt für Umwelt Rheinland-Pfalz 2022, Saadi et al. 2023, Tradowsky et al. 2023), located close to the PrePEP-Conference venue.
Apart from the dramatic flood event, the Ahr valley is famous for his beautiful red wine trail (see e.g. https://www.komoot.com/guide/269/hiking-in-the-ahr-hills). During the PrePEP-Conference, we offer on the afternoon of March 19, 2025, in collaboration with the State Environmental Agency Rhineland-Palatinate an excursion to the Ahr valley. In case of nice weather, the excursion also offers the possibility for a short hike on the trail and testing of local wine.
Participation requires prior registration until 16 February 2025 here. The attendance fee for the excursion is 25 Euro.
References:
Chen, J.-Y., R. Reinoso-Rondinel, S. Trömel, C. Simmer, A. Ryzhkov, 2022: A Radar-Based Quantitative Precipitation Estimation Algorithm to Overcome the Impact of Vertical Gradients of Warm-Rain Precipitation: The Flood in Western Germany on 14 July 2021. Journal of Hydrometeorology, 24(3), 521–536, https://doi.org/10.1175/JHM-D-22-0111.1.
Oltermann P., 2021: At least 58 dead in Germany as heavy rains bring catastrophic flooding. The Guardian, 15 Jul 2021.
Saadi, M., C. Furusho-Percot, A. Belleflamme, J.-Y. Chen, S. Trömel and S. Kollet, 2023: How uncertain are precipitation and peak flow estimates for the July 2021 flooding event? Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 23(1), 159–177, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-23-159-2023.
Tradowsky, J. S. et al., 2023: Attribution of the heavy rainfall events leading to severe flooding in Western Europe during July 2021. Climatic Change 176, 90 (2023), https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-023-03502-7.
Landesamt für Umwelt Rheinland-Pfalz (State Environmental Agency Rhineland-Palatinate), 2022: Bericht Hochwasser im Juli 2021.
The Ahr river in Altenahr before flood in 2021, copyright: SGD Nord
The Ahr river in Altenahr after flood on 14 July 2021, copyright: SGD Nord
