Daily rounds of heavy rain and thunderstorms crossed Central and Southeastern Europe in the last couple of week, causing flash flooding episodes. Hungary, the Czech Rep., regions of Poland, Romania, but also Turkey were hit and recorded losses, including lost lives.

• During the weekend, a huge rainstorm hit Budapest and the surrounding area, bad weather continuing also after that. The losses caused by the storms in recent days could reach EUR 4.3 million, Hungarian insurers estimate. Some companies, as Aegon or Groupama have stated for the local press that they have already received thousands of claims files. Moreover, given the high severity of the weather, as well as the characteristics of the residential areas they hit, the average value of the claims may be significantly higher than the one usual value for the summer storms (up to EUR 580, which is 2.5 - 4 times the usual average loss).
• Storms and floods also hit parts of the Czech Republic from 13 to 15 June. This was the second flash flood incident in the country in the last period, after the flooding that district caused widespread damage and left one victim in the district of Olomouc. Claims are expected in thousand, as only after the first weekend storm of June, Generali Ceska pojistovna has received after the first weekend of storms 940 claims, worth EUR 2.9 million, while after the recent episode expects about 1,200 claims worth approx. EUR 2 million. Kooperativa recorded 1,035 damages for EUR 2.63 million for the last two storm weekends. Allianz also expects claims to amount tens of millions of Czech koruna, while the other companies will most probably record some other tens of millions in claims.
• Flooding struck the Kestel district of Bursa province, in Turkey, on 21 June. After initial assessments, the provincial government reported two people had died and four were believed to be missing in the floods. Raging flood water swept through narrow streets of several neighborhoods in the district. Images shared on Social Media showed cars piled on top of each other in streets swamped in mud and debris in the aftermath of the floods. According to Turkish officials, five districts, 43 villages and tens of thousand of acres of agricultural land were affected.

"Since the air mass is holding lots of moisture, thunderstorms will have the ability to produce a lot of rainfall in a short amount of time that could lead to flash flooding," explained an article published on accuweather.com, concluding that bad weather with severe episodes of thunderstorms will continue in the following days.