Geography and Weather

 To help out those who are wondering, here’s a description of where Slovakia is. In the Eastern part of Central Europe, it has a Northern border with Poland, a North West border with the Czech Republic, a South West border with Austria, a Southern border with Hungary, and an Eastern border with the Ukraine.

Most of these countries have experienced heavier than usual rainfall in recent weeks.

On the TV news we’ve seen footage of people being rescued by helicopters, and roads bridges and rail lines washed away.

We have heard that in Poland in the month of May they only had one rain free day, and also that in one 2 day period they had their usual monthly May rainfall. The Slovak/Hungarian border was closed for several days when we first arrived with all of the road and rail links closed. At Nitra, which is 65km to the Southwest, the airfield is closed as the runway is partially under water. Pete flew over the area on Tuesday and saw how wet it is (just like Narromine during the squad week training).

Yesterday a German pilot (who is in Prievidza for a repair on his glider) showed us photos of gliders in a hangar at a club in Austria. The hangar was flooded on 13^th June and gliders were left with water to their wing roots, their cockpits full of mud.

More than one person has told us that they believe the extra rain is due to dust in the atmosphere from the Icelandic volcanic eruption last month. Whatever the cause there is a lot of water around.