Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Tornadoes, High Winds Damage Neighborhoods In Northern Germany; 1 Dead

Jess Baker
Published: May 5,2015




 
A damaging line of storms plowed through northern Germany on Tuesday, producing damaging winds and at least three tornadoes. At least one death, and dozens of injuries, are blamed on the storms, which also brought damaging winds to the region after moving in from the Netherlands.
Radar shows the strong line of storms in Germany.
(The Weather Channel)
All three of the tornadoes formed in the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (MV), which borders Poland and the Baltic Sea.
Photos from the region show badly-damaged buildings. According to major German newspaper Die Welt, a hospital and a nursing home were among the damaged buildings.
The newspaper also reports the storms killed one driver in Hamburg, after winds tossed a canopy onto his vehicle; his passenger was taken to the hospital.
Spiegel Online, another German media site, reports at least 30 people were injured by flying debris in the district of Rostock Butzow. The news source says the city's town hall was "demolished."
According to weather.com senior meteorologist Nick Wiltgen, a 78-mph wind gust was measured at the airport in Rostock. Farther west, Faßberg Air Base in north-central Germany clocked a 59-mph gust.
The thunderstorms were triggered by a cold front pushing east through the region in association with a strong low pressure system centered over Great Britain. The storm system, named "Zoran" by the Free University of Berlin, brought blustery conditions across northwest Europe behind the cold front Tuesday.
Those winds gusted as high as 52 mph in Amsterdam early Tuesday evening, toppling a construction fence along a narrow street in the city center and injuring seven people, according to RTV Noord-Holland. Hail up to the size of golfballs was reported earlier in the day as storms ripped across the Netherlands around lunchtime before moving east into Germany.


Überreste eines Tornados in Bützow bei Rostock

Poderoso Tornado en Alemania! Reportan 1 muerto, 30 heridos y serios daños en Hamburgo & Rostock. Vía @NewsOnTheMin

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The complex line of storms marched east into Poland before dissipating as a new line of thunderstorms formed ahead of it.
"Germany has had an average of about 32 tornadoes reported per year over the last 10 years," according to Dr. Greg Forbes, severe weather expert for The Weather Channel, citing data from the European Severe Weather Database.
MORE: Strangest Tornado Damage Photos

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