Recent events
Floods
On July 23, 1998 serious floods
occurred in the watershed of Zlatý potok (Dědina) and Bělá. These usually
small creeks flooded large areas in the surroundings (260+ sq. km), starting
from mountain villages Deštné, Skuhrov, Kounov and Bystré and ending on
their influx to Orlice river near Třebechovice pod Orebem. Opočno was one
of about thirty communities in its path.
After several hours of heavy rain
(up to 200 mm/hour) during the night the water whipped everything standing
in its way. Creeks found new watercourses, often through houses, cars,
... and it also brought seven casualties. Many family houses (1300+), production plants,
roads, bridges and cars were damaged.
It took more than one year to rebuild
all the damaged roads and bridges. Overall loss is more than 2 billion Kč (about
70 mil. USD).
See documents of these floods (in
Czech):
Circles In Corn Fields
It is not sure if this phenomenon should be among facts or legends. But as many
people visited and saw these phenomena in recent years, they seem to be facts. Nevertheless nobody knows
how to explain them.
In the middle of July 1999 during the harvest several isolated circles of lodged
spikes appeared in the middle of wheat fields 4 km NW from Opočno. They were detected from the train
between railway stations Pohoří and Bohuslavice.
The circles were about 10 m in diameter with sharp and regular boundary. Almost all spikes in each
circle were lodged tangentially with the same orientation, looking like a swirl. The spikes were not
broken (that happens when you try to lodge the spike manually) but flexed. Some few percent of spikes
in the circle remained standing, most of them near the center of the swirl.
The center of the swirl was not identical with the geometric center of the circle, the shift was about
2 m. In this case 4 circles were lodged clockwise and 1 circle counter-clockwise.
Alhough the soil was wet, no evidence was found indicating that these
circles were man-made or what tool could have been used.
The surrounding spikes seemed untouched (of course only until combine harvesters
came close and the first
curious visitors created footpaths to and among the circles).
The circles remained on the field for several days until combine harvesters finished
their work.
In mid July 2000 another five circles (diameter 20 m) appeared 1 km north-east of Opočno.
In 2002 this phenomenon arose again.
5 circles were found by Mr. Zuzánek from a powered rogallo (delta wing) on 30 June 2002 at 11:30 AM in a wheat field between Opočno and a milk processing factory Nutricia (Friesland).
The circles were 18.7 to 19.5 meters in diameter. Like the years before, the stems were folded to create spirals, with slightly eccentric "centers", with no evident damage in the "centers". The edges of the circles were clean and sharp.
The circles were not far from roads and houses (several tenths of meters from the closest road, several hundreds meters from houses), however not clearly visible from these places.
Experts from association Záblesk
investigated the place, but there have not been found any facts supporting any idea of arising the circles (see the report).
Almost each year in the summer such unexplainable phenomena appear in the surroundings.
See Czech Crop Circles web site.
Similar symbols are found from time to time all over the world, some of them are determined to be a joke,
but most of them still unexplained.
Weather
On 13 May 2008 a hailstorm covered the town for an hour by a layer of hails.
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It is not sure if this phenomenon should be among facts or legends. But as many
people visited and saw these phenomena in recent years, they seem to be facts. Nevertheless nobody knows
how to explain them.
In the middle of July 1999 during the harvest several isolated circles of lodged
spikes appeared in the middle of wheat fields 4 km NW from Opočno. They were detected from the train
between railway stations Pohoří and Bohuslavice.
The circles were about 10 m in diameter with sharp and regular boundary. Almost all spikes in each
circle were lodged tangentially with the same orientation, looking like a swirl. The spikes were not
broken (that happens when you try to lodge the spike manually) but flexed. Some few percent of spikes
in the circle remained standing, most of them near the center of the swirl.
The center of the swirl was not identical with the geometric center of the circle, the shift was about
2 m. In this case 4 circles were lodged clockwise and 1 circle counter-clockwise.
Alhough the soil was wet, no evidence was found indicating that these
circles were man-made or what tool could have been used.
The surrounding spikes seemed untouched (of course only until combine harvesters
came close and the first
curious visitors created footpaths to and among the circles).
The circles remained on the field for several days until combine harvesters finished
their work.
5 circles were found by Mr. Zuzánek from a powered rogallo (delta wing) on 30 June 2002 at 11:30 AM in a wheat field between Opočno and a milk processing factory Nutricia (Friesland).
On 13 May 2008 a hailstorm covered the town for an hour by a layer of hails.