Christmas flood 2023: Stormy times for Lower Saxony!

On December 27, 2024, it became known that the newsletter "SN Inside" ends with the last issue. Personal anecdotes and philosophical explanations of the author are presented in the final edition. At the same time, a new newsletter format called "5 in 5" is introduced, which provides the most important local messages in short sentences every day. The last newsletter also looks back at the Christmas flood of the past year, which had devastating effects in regions such as Rodenberg.

In retrospect for the Christmas flood 2023/2024 in northern Germany, especially in Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia and North Rhine-Westphalia, there are worrying developments: From Christmas 2023 there were heavy rains on already saturated floors, which led to large-scale floods, which continued until January 2024. Several towns had to be evacuated, and dams were completely filled, which is why water was derived through flood relief. Extreme weather conditions led to floods in many parts of Germany, whereby Lower Saxony was particularly affected, with flooded roads and necessary evacuations in several cities.

effects of the flood

The precipitation card documents the affected rivers between December 22, 2023 and January 4, 2024. In Lower Saxony, the levels of Mittelweser, Aller, Leine and Oker were significantly increased, while in Bavaria the focus was on the Franconian Saale. The total damage in Lower Saxony is estimated at around 161 million euros, the insured damage in northern and central Germany is around 200 million euros.

The sea surface temperature of 2023 was above the previous range, which is associated with more frequent extreme weather events. The likelihood of heavy rain and flooding in Germany increases due to climate change, which is according to experts, improved predictability of flood events compared to previous extreme floods.

In view of the dramatic situation, Lower Saxony asked the Bundeswehr for administrative assistance on December 29, 2023. The European disaster protection mechanism was activated on December 30, 2023, while the district of Mansfeld-Südharz struck the disaster. By January 4, 2024, the sandbag stocks in Lower Saxony were almost completely used up, and severe weather warnings were spent on 49 counties. On February 12, 2024, the Lower Saxony state parliament decided on a supplementary budget of 111 million euros to combat flood damage.