Severe storms over Germany: fallen trees and flooded basements - DWD warning for the east

Created: 07/02/2022 05:57

By: Patrick Huljina

On Thursday evening, some severe storms swept across western Germany.

A similar scenario is looming in the east on Friday.

Duisburg/Munich - The heat is followed by lightning: This is how you could describe the weather in Germany at the moment.

After the high temperatures of the past few weeks, another storm swept across the country on Thursday evening (June 30).

A storm front with heavy rain and gusty winds has left its mark, particularly in western Germany.

Storms in NRW: Fallen trees and flooded basements - more than 600 operations in Duisburg

In several cities in North Rhine-Westphalia, the fire brigades were in continuous operation on Thursday evening.

Numerous trees fell over, cellars and streets were under water.

There were failures and route closures in rail traffic.

The city of Duisburg in the Ruhr area was particularly affected.

In the Duisburg district of Baerl, the phones fell out at times, the fire department said.

She had to process 500 emergency calls in a short time.

By 10 p.m., more than 600 operations related to the storm had been reported in the city.

There was a multitude of downed trees, as well as flooding of streets and basements.

On the Ruhr, the fire brigade rescued people who had capsized with a boat.

Storm over Germany: several lightning strikes in North Rhine-Westphalia

But other cities in North Rhine-Westphalia also had to deal with thunderstorms.

In Krefeld, the fire brigade was in constant use because of the storm.

Many citizens pulled smaller trees and branches from the streets.

In Mülheim/Ruhr, an approximately 20 meter high oak tree was split - probably by a lightning strike.

Half of a tree fell on a two-storey house and damaged the roof.

A car was hit by the tree.

Luckily no one was hurt.

A storm front with heavy rain and squalls over NRW has left some traces.

© Photography Alex Forstreuter/dpa

In Bergisch Gladbach, a lightning strike caused a roof truss fire on a family home.

Before the fire brigade arrived, a resident tried to fight the flames himself from a ladder with a garden hose.

No one was injured here either, according to the fire department.

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Storm over Germany: DWD warning for the east on Friday

On Friday (July 1st) the bad weather will shift to the eastern half of Germany.

The German Weather Service (DWD) forecast in the morning "heavy rain in spots of up to 25 liters per square meter in a short time".

In the afternoon, according to the DWD, "in particular from East Saxony to Western Pomerania, there is an increased risk of severe thunderstorms with heavy rain up to 40 liters per square meter, larger hail and heavy gusts of wind up to 100 km/h".

Late in the evening, the showers and thunderstorms will move east.

In addition to North Rhine-Westphalia, severe storms with thunderstorms, heavy rain and hail also passed over Bavaria on Thursday.

Heavy hailstorms fell in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, with grains the size of table tennis balls.