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The flood was caused by two combined low pressure areas over Europe, made worse by the El Niño conditions of 2002, causing severe rainfalls in August.
On August 13, the mountain areas in Central Europe registered 12 inches of rainfall in 24 hours, and five days later, the rivers downhill reached their highest levels in centuries.
The satellite images to the left show the area around Torgau on August 14 and on August 20, 2002. The circle indicates the location of the marker. Note that the river is barely visible in the top picture.
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