Amsterdam Trees Hard-Hit by European Windstorm "Zeljko"; Casualties Reported in Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Slovakia

Nick Wiltgen
Published: July 25,2015
Residents in at least four European countries will be cleaning up after being blasted by damaging winds from an unseasonably strong low-pressure system and several lines of severe thunderstorms associated with it Friday and Saturday.
At least three people have reportedly been killed and 15 others injured by the stormy weather associated with a strong low-pressure system, which the Free University of Berlin's meteorology department has named Zeljko.

The Netherlands

A woman stands amidst the wrecked branches of a large tree that fell in Amsterdam. The city experienced a long period of high winds due to the low-pressure system named 'Zeljko' on Saturday, July 25, 2015. (Credit: Instagram/Annemarije Heijerman)

The Dutch news website Omroep Gelderland said one man was killed in Wolfheze, Gelderland, when a tree fell on him while he was standing next to his stopped car outside a hotel. In a separate incident, a passenger was seriously injured and hospitalized after being struck by a falling tree while inside a car in Apeldoorn, according to the same report.
Another injury was reported in Rotterdam, where wind gusts as high as 52 mph knocked down a market stall. One of the beams of that stall struck and injured a person, according to police officer Sander Boer. In a Tweet, he said: "KNMI [Dutch weather service] code-red warning wasn't for nothing! 1 injured by falling stall beam at #Binnenrotte."
Trees were felled across much of the country as winds gusted over 50 mph. The wind was particularly tenacious near the coast, where the country's official meteorological agency posted code-red wind warnings. The Hoorn-A oil platform just off the Dutch coast clocked a 78-mph wind gust according to official weather observation data.
In Amsterdam, sustained winds of 35 mph were reported for four hours straight between 12:55 p.m. and 4:55 p.m. local time, and a peak gust of 63 mph was observed during that period.
The Dutch weather website Weer.nl says the storm is the Netherlands' strongest July windstorm since modern records began in 1901.

Germany

A line of thunderstorms swept northeast through much of the country Friday night, bringing torrential rainfall and numerous lightning strikes, many of them the more powerful but typically rare positvely-charged kind. One of the lightning strikes triggered a fire that destroyed a house in Hamburg; three occupants suffered injuries from smoke inhalation, according to T Online.
The same high winds that battered the Netherlands also moved into Germany, hitting the northern half of the country especially hard. In Babenhausen, Hesse, a woman was slightly injured when she crashed into a tree that fell right in front of her car as she was driving, according to the Frankfurter Neue Presse.
RP Online said a man was hurt in Mülheim and der Ruhr when winds knocked a heavy object loose from a crane. It fell onto a wheel loader, pinning the operator inside and seriously injuring him. He was eventually extricated.
Top wind gusts reported in Germany Saturday included 58 mph in Munster, 53 mph in Paderborn, and 51 mph in Celle and Laage. Winds peaked at 48 mph at Berlin's Tegel Airport as well as in Frankfurt, and 47 mph at the Dusseldorf Airport.

Peak Wind Gusts: Saturday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Poland

The European Severe Weather Database says one woman was killed by lightning in a small Polish village near the Czech and Slovak borders as thunderstorms first erupted there Friday afternoon.
Radar from the Polish government weather agency showed two squall lines of thunderstorms marching east across the country Saturday afternoon and evening. The line in western Poland produced a 59-mph wind gust in Zielona Gora.

Slovakia

Lightning struck outside a church during a feast in the village of Kluknava Saturday evening, killing one person and injuring seven others, four of them seriously, according to the website of newspaper Novoveský Korzár.
A witness quoted in the report said there were about 500 pilgrims attending the event. When the bolt struck, many of the pilgrims were standing outside the church because of its limited capacity, leaving them vulnerable.
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