Wezbranie zatorowe rzeki Wisły w Kotlinie Warszawskiej w lutym i marcu 2010 roku

Ice-jam flood of the Vistula River in the Warszawa Basin during February and March 2010. During thaw in upper Vistula catchment, snowmelt runoff raised the river water stage and reduced ice cover. Ice floes moving downstream encountered ice cover with frazil slush what caused piling them up and the ice jam was formed. It took place in lower part of the Warszawa Basin, near Kepa Polska water gauge, where such a situation happens quite often. The water level increased rapidly, exceeded the alarm stage and reached the highest level even measured. The flooding almost occurred. The paper contains the analysis of the ice jam flood, its consequences and comparison with another extreme flood episodes in lower part of Warszawa Basin. The authors try to explain the reasons of embankment failure in the described case. Because of the limitations of making measurments in ice-covered rivers it is hard to draw certain conclusions about the prcoesses connected with ice jam events.