Hurricane, thaw, constant rain and fresh snow: a dangerous mixture is brewing for southern Germany. It gets particularly turbulent on Tuesday night. The situation will only calm down in the middle of the week. But not for long.
Offenbach / Main (dpa) - The new week brings constant rain, thaw and violent storms to southern Germany. Floods also remain an issue.
The German Weather Service (DWD) warned for the night of Tuesday of "extreme hurricane gusts" with over 140 km / h in the high mountains, and even in deeper regions gusts of wind can chase across the country with 120 km / h. It continues to pour: In the Black Forest and the Allgäu region, the total amount of rain that has fallen since the weekend can locally increase to 100 liters, sometimes even to 140 to 200 liters. Official weather warnings applied to many regions in southern Germany.
To complete the nasty weather mix, the cold front brings 10 to 20 centimeters of fresh snow in the low mountain ranges on Tuesday and Wednesday, and in some cases even more than 50 centimeters in the Alps. The avalanche warning service therefore called warning level three out of five in several Bavarian areas. In Bavaria, flooding was also expected in the eastern Alps.
The flood situation was most tense on Monday in Baden-Württemberg after the water levels in many rivers had risen sharply after a completely rainy weekend. According to the Baden-Württemberg flood forecast center (HVZ), individual rivers even came close to the ten-year mark. At Oppenau (Ortenaukreis), trees fell on the tracks of the Renchtalbahn on Monday, according to the federal police. A train collided with the obstacle and could not continue the journey. Slipped earth masses damaged a house in Simonswald (district of Emmendingen).
The Rhine near Karlsruhe should reach its highest level on Tuesday. For the Maxau level, the HVZ predicted a maximum level between just over 7.00 meters and just under 8.00 meters. Shipping is interrupted from 7.50 meters. The water level of the Neckar in Heidelberg should also continue to increase until Tuesday.
The water levels on the Moselle also rose: on Monday morning, the water level at the Trier level was more than 6.50 meters - according to the Rhineland-Palatinate Flood Reporting Center, this is a good three meters above the average water level. The first streets on the Middle Moselle were already flooded on Monday afternoon and were closed. The closure of the city motorway was prepared in Saarbrücken.
The weather becomes calmer from midweek. The sun will show up a bit more often, it mostly stays dry. The cold air that has flowed in is predicted to warm up somewhat, but at night there is a risk of frost in certain areas. The DWD estimates that the risk of storms will increase significantly at the beginning of the next week and there will be new, sometimes heavy, rainfall.
press release