Baden-Wuerttemberg
Hailstorm transforms Reutlingen into a winter landscape
Hailstones and leaves torn off by the storm lie on the ground in Reutlingen. photo
© Thomas Warnack/dpa
Within a very short time, Reutlingen’s city center will be wintry – in the middle of summer. Hailstones pile up in the streets after a hailstorm. The damage is manageable.
The hailstones piled up in places up to 30 centimeters high. Snow plows and wheel loaders pushed the hail together to a height of more than one meter when clearing up. According to the authorities, no one was injured. But the fire brigade went out with around 290 emergency services to more than 120 missions.
“The first operations were people locked in the car because they could no longer drive away due to the hail or the doors could no longer be opened,” said a spokesman for the integrated control center. The fire brigade shoveled car doors free and freed the people. The hail did not appear to cause damage to vehicles or buildings. However, the grains blocked gullies and sewage shafts, so that water flowed into underground car parks, basements and residential buildings, as a city spokeswoman said.
A meteorologist from the German Weather Service (DWD) classified the storm as “not exceptional”. Accordingly, a comparatively small storm cell had formed shortly before Reutlingen. Because it was only moving slowly, a lot of hail was beating down on the city within a very short time. The grains had a diameter of up to 1.8 centimeters.
“It is not common for a city like Reutlingen to be hit,” said the DWD expert. If the storm had swept across the open country a few miles away, it probably wouldn’t have gotten as much attention. Such masses of rain and hail would run off faster on meadows and fields than in a built-up city.