Floods in France

Days of heavy rain flooded southeastern France and northern Italy in January 2014. Topography and the size of the floods made the swollen rivers difficult to see by satellite, but extensive, mud-laden runoff created tan and green plumes of sediment visible in the Mediterranean. The top image was acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite on January 21, 2014. In contrast, the lower image shows normal January conditions. The floods forced evacuations and two deaths, according to news reports.

1. References

2. BBC News (2014, January 19) France floods: Deaths as Var inundated. Accessed January 21, 2014.
3. UPI (2014, January 20) Floods force hundreds from homes in northern Italy. Accessed January 21, 2014.

NASA images courtesy LANCE/EOSDIS MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC. Caption by Holli Riebeek.

Instrument: 

Terra - MODIS - NASA