Heavy storms first hit eastern France on Tuesday evening and then moved on to southwest and southern Germany. There, too, the storm front caused countless fallen trees. There have been no reports of injuries in Bavaria so far.
Nevertheless, according to the police, emergency services had to move out more than 200 times in the Rosenheim district and in Ingolstadt. The emergencies were mostly limited to uprooted trees and torn branches. In the district of Rosenheim, for example, a tree fell on a car and the construction site sign on a motorway near Regensburg blew onto the road. Scaffolding collapsed in Augsburg.
The storm knocked over a circus tent near Marktoberdorf (Ostallgäu district), two women aged 25 and 33 were among them. They were taken to the hospital with serious injuries. In the north of Upper Bavaria, 346 operations were reported during the night. A tree fell on a caravan near Olching (Fürstenfeldbruck district), the police said. A 60-year-old was seriously injured. He was taken to the hospital by ambulance.
In Munich, the emergency services have been called to more than 200 operations. Here, too, it was mainly trees or objects that had fallen down due to the strong wind. In the district of Pfaffenhofen an der Ilm, the power failed over a large area. Franconia was largely spared from the storm.
Previously, extreme storms of the highest warning level 4 had been warned in the Lake Constance region. A police spokesman in Ravensburg said in the evening that the operational situation was not manageable because emergency calls were constantly being received. However, no injuries were reported. Many trees were snapped and roofs were taken off.
A very severe thunderstorm was active, especially in Sigmaringen, Ravensburg and in the Lake Constance district. In the region around Reutlingen, too, the police and fire brigade had to go on numerous missions. There were several traffic accidents with injuries due to the severe storm. Around 11 p.m., according to DWD information, the all-clear was largely given for Baden-Württemberg and the thunderstorms continued towards Bavaria.
30 damaged buildings in Saarland
In Saarland, the small town of Asweiler was particularly affected in the early evening. There a storm raged in an aisle of about 100 meters. Around 30 buildings were damaged. It was not clear if it was a tornado. Nobody got hurt.
“The damage picture had raised fears of worse,” said the Saarland Minister of the Interior
(Photo: Christian Schulz/dpa)
A large contingent of fire brigades, THW and police were on site. Saarland Minister of the Interior Reinhold Jost (SPD) said that fortunately no one was injured. “The damage picture had raised fears of worse,” said the interior minister. The population was taken care of in the village community center.
Storm gusts and a collapsed supermarket in France
The storm had previously raged in France. The ceiling of a supermarket collapsed in Dijon and 30 trees were uprooted in Vichy. Residents from various locations shared photos of large hailstones falling with the squalls, BFMTV broadcaster and the newspaper reported Le Parisien. According to initial findings, no one was harmed. Storm gusts with a speed of more than 100 kilometers per hour were registered in Dijon and Mulhouse. The French railways stopped traffic on some routes for safety reasons.
Experts had recommended keeping windows and doors closed during the storm, securing outdoor objects and keeping your distance from buildings, trees, scaffolding and high-voltage lines. People should stay as little as possible outdoors.
In Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg it was the hottest in Germany on Tuesday before the storms. Meteorologist Ursula Papassimeon from the German Weather Service (DWD) said that the peak temperature was measured at 37.2 degrees Celsius in Möhrendorf-Kleinseebach (in the central Franconian district of Erlangen-Höchstadt). According to the DWD, the thermometer showed 37 degrees Celsius in Kitzingen in Lower Franconia, as well as in Lahr/Black Forest and Notzingen (both in Baden-Württemberg).