Articles | Volume 15, issue 4
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-15-1395-2019
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-15-1395-2019
Research article
 | 
30 Jul 2019
Research article |  | 30 Jul 2019

Causes of increased flood frequency in central Europe in the 19th century

Stefan Brönnimann, Luca Frigerio, Mikhaël Schwander, Marco Rohrer, Peter Stucki, and Jörg Franke

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AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision
ED: Reconsider after major revisions (05 May 2019) by Hugues Goosse
AR by Stefan Bronnimann on behalf of the Authors (16 May 2019)  Author's response    Manuscript
ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (17 May 2019) by Hugues Goosse
RR by Anonymous Referee #2 (12 Jun 2019)
ED: Publish as is (25 Jun 2019) by Hugues Goosse
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Short summary
During the 19th century flood frequency was high in central Europe, but it was low in the mid-20th century. This paper tracks these decadal changes in flood frequency for the case of Switzerland from peak discharge data back to precipitation data and daily weather reconstructions. We find an increased frequency in flood-prone weather types during large parts of the 19th century and decreased frequency in the mid-20th century. Sea-surface temperature anomalies can only explain a small part of it.