We can look forward to a lot of dry weather over the next few days, but the complete opposite has been true of many other parts of Europe recently with plenty of heavy rain reported.

I'll start in Austria where several days of heavy rain have caused flooding in many areas. In the past two days 140mm (nearly six inches) of rain has fallen. Swollen Alpine streams have made roads impassable, and residents have had to bail out their basements overnight. Salzburg is one place to have been affected, with the rain swollen Salzach River reaching a depth of 5.5 metres, the level at which flood warnings are issued. As a precautionary measure officials have prepared sandbags in case the river's banks need to be reinforced. In August 2002 devastating floods killed 100 people in Austria and neighbouring Germany and Czech Republic.

Germany has also been experiencing heavy downpours recently. On Thursday 49mm (two inches) of wet weather came down in just 18 hours in Freiberg in the north of the country. This is half as much as you would expect for the whole of June. But things are looking much more settled here and in Austria by Monday.

However, similar things have been happening in Italy. Thunderstorms rumbled through on Thursday, where half a months worth of rain fell in 18 hours (24mm, one inch). This amount was recorded in the Northern city of Arezzo. Don't despair if you're off to this area in the next few days because the outlook is much drier and brighter, at least after the weekend.

The same set of thunderstorms made their way through Albania on Thursday. 92mm (nearly four inches) of rain fell in Tirana, the capital city, in 30 hours. This is well in excess of the monthly average which is 67mm.

Let's head round to the other side of the world then, and make our way to Fiji where again the weather story of the moment is rain. Back in April heavy rain caused flooding, loss of lives and major damage on the main island of Viti Levu. Some people are still homeless here, and there is now more heavy rain. Rescuers have had to evacuate people from the town of Korovou in the east of the island as the heavy rain continues and the rivers and streams rise rapidly. Officials expecting further rain over the next few days are preparing for the worse.

Weather News from the last five days:
03/06/2004
02/06/2004
01/06/2004
31/05/2004
30/05/2004

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