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Severe weather leader Starnberg: Most lightning strikes in Germany - expert explains phenomenon

2022-07-19T10:24:11.321Z


Severe weather leader Starnberg: Most lightning strikes in Germany - expert explains phenomenon Created: 07/19/2022, 12:09 p.m By: Tobias Gmach Lightning over the Starnberg church square and the district were particularly common in 2021. In June alone there were 14 thunderstorm days. © Michael Stürzer Nowhere else in Germany did so many lightning strikes in relation to the area in 2021 as in t


Severe weather leader Starnberg: Most lightning strikes in Germany - expert explains phenomenon

Created: 07/19/2022, 12:09 p.m

By: Tobias Gmach

Lightning over the Starnberg church square and the district were particularly common in 2021.

In June alone there were 14 thunderstorm days.

© Michael Stürzer

Nowhere else in Germany did so many lightning strikes in relation to the area in 2021 as in the district of Starnberg - a total of 3714. The foothills of the Alps naturally dominate in these statistics.

District – The district of Starnberg was Germany's lightning stronghold last year.

This is reported by the Siemens Lightning Information Service (BLIDS).

With 7.6 impacts per square kilometer, Starnberg is well ahead of Augsburg and the Bodenseekreis district (both about 5.9).

The neighboring districts of Weilheim-Schongau and Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen are in sixth and tenth place.

Severe weather in 2021: Most lightning strikes in Starnberg nationwide

“Compared to previous years, 2021 was again significantly more rainy, but temperatures were still high, especially in June.

So the basic requirements for thunderstorms – humidity and hot temperatures – were in place,” says BLIDS director Stephan Thern.

"There were 43 thunderstorm days in and around Starnberg, 14 of them in June alone." And Siemens registered a total of 3,714 lightning strikes, which draws on the data from around 160 measuring stations in Europe for the comprehensive overall statistics.

Thern has been involved with spark discharge for many years.

He knows that one-fifth of the lightning bolts measured nationwide every year strike on a single day.

In 2021 it was at least ten percent - on June 29th, a total of more than 45,000. Thern also knows that the Upper Bavarian counties close to the Alps are often at the forefront.

By the way: Everything from the region is now also available in our regular Starnberg newsletter.

After all, the storm clouds like to get stuck on the mountains, and the warm, humid climate in summer makes for ideal lightning conditions.

For the fourth year in a row, Starnberg is in the top 20 of the approximately 400 independent cities and districts in Germany.

The district of Garmisch-Partenkirchen even leads a long-term table ahead of Weilheim-Schongau - if you look at the years 2010 to 2019 on average.

Stephan Thern, Head of the Siemens Lightning Information Service, here at a measuring station.

© Uli Deck/Siemens AG

If there were so many lightning strikes in the Fünfseenland last year, there must have been more lightning damage.

Thern confirms this when asked.

However, he does not have any figures or examples.

However, he says: "We can help determine whether a lightning strike caused damage or failure." A common scenario: insurance companies call Siemens to ask whether lightning was actually responsible - for the tree that fell on the car, for the broken stove, television or internet router.

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Joachim Swatosch from the Württembergische, who has been running an agency in Höhenrain for 41 years, only recently settled two lightning damage cases.

"But compared to the other storm damage caused by hail or flooding, they are negligible," he says.

He does not come to more than 15 cases a year.

"But this is a snapshot that can change from one day to the next." Siegfried Klaschik, Allianz representative in Starnberg, sounds similar: "If there are five to ten cases, there are many." He points out that that newer houses in particular are well protected against lightning strikes.

And yet something happens again and again, like this year on the evening of May 5th in two places in the district.

The roof structure of a residential building in Krailling caught fire after a lightning strike, and a large spruce tree on the Steinberg in Gilching was struck by lightning and at times threatened to fall on neighboring residential buildings.

"Since 1991, Siemens has been analyzing the registered lightning and immediately sending warnings to thunderstorm alarm customers - to protect people, animals, technology and infrastructure," says a company press release.

In addition to insurers, customers include weather services, industrial companies from all sectors and operators of power grids, sports facilities and fire brigades.

Service providers who warn of thunderstorms, such as siren manufacturers, also use BLIDS data.

You can find more current news from the district of Starnberg at Merkur.de/Starnberg.

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-07-19

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