The June 2013 flood in the Upper Danube basin was one of the largest floods in the past two centuries. An atmospheric blocking situation produced precipitation exceed-ing 300 mm over four days at the northern rim of the Alps. The high precipitation along with high antecedent soil moisture gave rise to extreme flood discharges in a number 5 of tributaries including the Tiroler Ache, Saalach, Salzach and Inn. Runoff coefficients ranged from 0.2 in the Bavarian lowlands to 0.6 in the Alpine areas in Austria. Snow-fall at high altitudes (above about 1600 m a.s.l.) reduced the runoff volume produced. Precipitation was distributed over two blocks separated by a few hours which resulted in a single peak, long duration flood wave at the Inn and Danube. At the confluence of 10 the Bavarian Danube and the Inn, the small time lag between the two flood waves ex-acerbated the downstream flood at the Danube. Because of the long duration and less inundation, there was less flood peak attenuation along the Austrian Danube reach than for the August 2002 flood. Maximum flood discharges of the Danube at Vienna were about 11 000 m 3 s −1 , as compared to 10 300, 9600 and 10 500 m 3 s −1 in 2002, 15 1954 and 1899, respectively. This paper reviews the meteorological and hydrological characteristics of the event as compared to the 2002, 1954 and 1899 floods, and dis-cusses the implications for hydrological research and flood risk management.