The snow in the Alps was unprecedented; there was more of it on the ground in July than at Christmastime. Then, in a meteorological freak, a cold air mass from the north collided over the Alps with a moisture-laden warm air mass from the south, and the resultant rain and snow were more than any river system could handle. The worst Danube flood since the 16th century was on.
In Bavaria and western Austria, rain fell steadily for two weeks. The Inn, Traun, Enns and Ilz Rivers, swollen and heavy with flotsam, emptied...
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