Abstract
In 2007, we commemorated the 10th anniversary of the natural disaster from July 1997, which affected a number of countries in Central Europe. In the Czech Republic, it was the "flood of the century".
Certain analogy was an extreme event that was recorded exactly a hundred years ago, in the summer of 1897, i.e. more than 110 years ago today. While the then recording of multiday total precipitation amounts was discontinued in July 1997, the 1-day amount of 345 mm measured at the Nová Louka/Neuwiese station in the Jizerské hory Mts. (780 m a.s.l.) on 29 July 1897 was not surmounted.
Until these days, it is therefore a Czech (and most likely also at least a Central-European) record. The extreme precipitation in summer 1897 resulted in high water that affected a considerable part of Central Europe.
The disastrous floods caused immense material losses and took a toll of at least 167 human lives. At the same time, however, they became impetus for a range of flood-control measures.