Extreme flooding in Central Europe began after several days of heavy rain in late May and early June 2013.

In the last ten days of May a low pressure system named "Christoffer" swung up from the Mediterranean across the Black Sea then across Ukraine and Poland to Northern Germany, eventually bringing a very moist, and warm airmass to Central Europe from north-east.

Spring and summer flooding in Central Europe is commonly associated with the so-called "Zugstrasse Vb" track of low pressure areas, which bring low pressure and moist air from the Mediterranean Sea over Central Europe, and have led to severe flooding in the affected region before.

[10] Low pressure areas "Frederik" and "Günther" formed over the northern Adriatic and tracked north towards central Europe.

[4] Stefan Rahmstorf, a professor of ocean physics at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, stated that a low-pressure system that dumped the rain was locked into place by a disturbance with the global wind pattern.

When a “resonance” episode occurs, half a dozen peaks and troughs of high or low pressure form around the hemisphere.

[18] The Austrian meteorological center (ZAMG) said Austria had experienced at the beginning of June as much rain in two days as it normally would in two months.

[19] Train lines in many parts of northwest Austria were suspended on 1 June due to landslides according to Austrian Federal Railways.

The town of Ettenau was evacuated, while one person in Sankt Johann im Pongau near Salzburg was caught in a mudslide and died.

[19] The upper areas of the Elbe basin saw heavy rainfall, with the Vltava (Czech Republic) and the Saale (Germany) tributaries flooding.

[21] Fire fighters helped evacuate more than 7,000 people on 2–3 June from areas hit by the floods, in the region of central, northern and western Bohemia, including parts of the Czech capital.

Hundreds of homes in Modřany and Zbraslav in the south of the city were also evacuated while some people in Lahovice and Velká Chuchle were rescued by helicopter.

[24] Petr Nečas, the Czech prime minister, announced on 4 June that the government will release 4 billion CZK (€ 155m, £ 133m, $ 203m) from the state reserves to repair the damage.

[28] In the area around Halle alone, authorities told some 30,000 people to evacuate their homes, the Saale river, a tributary of the Elbe, had risen 26 feet (7.9 m) above its normal level.

The town's fire station was underwater, with car dealerships holding millions of euros worth of vehicles destroyed.

[35] Flooding affected German businesses with Krones, a bottling and packaging manufacturing company, shutting down production in two plants in upper Bavaria, as workers were unable to get to work on the inundated roads.

He announced the government had mobilized 8,000 soldiers, 8,000 emergency personnel, 1,400 water management experts, and 3,600 police officers to deal with the situation.