O hrozném a velikém suchu, zadržení dešťů a odtud následujícím nedostatku vody (K 400. výročí velké přírodní katastrofy v českých zemích a ve střední Evropě)

The Czech Republic and Central Europe have been recently suffering from frequent floods. However, drought as an opposite hydrometeorological extreme may be equally threatening great natural disaster. The Czech Republic has been experiencing an extremely severe spell of drought in these years. It started already in the autumn of 2014 and significantly deepened during the year 2015. The study of historical and contemporary sources mentioning drought periods in the past indicate there were four cases of this climatic extreme between the 16th and 18th centuries, in the years 1540, 1590, 1616 and 1790. In those years, the natural disaster afflicted the whole region of Czech Lands as well as some other countries of Central Europe. This year 2016 will see the 400th anniversary of disastrous drought period occurring in 1616.