The devastating storms in southern Austria claimed five lives on Thursday. In a very short time, gusts of wind with speeds of up to 140 km/h caused enormous devastation, causing the power supply and rail traffic in parts of the affected states to collapse. You can see here where the storm raged the most.
According to the Ubimet weather service, the thunderstorm line had already formed near the French Mediterranean island of Corsica on Thursday night, causing hurricane gusts of 130 to 200 km/h. On Thursday morning, the storm passed through Tuscany and northern Italy and reached Carinthia for the first time in the afternoon, where massive trees were blown over like matches or even uprooted. In the Lavant Valley, two little girls, ages three and eight, died and 13 other people were injured, some seriously.
The power supply in Eastern Carinthia collapsed, thousands of households were temporarily without power, as did Styria, which was hit by the storm moments later. There too, the strong gusts of wind caused great damage, high-voltage lines broke and tens of thousands of households were affected by power outages.
Record-breaking 139 km/h at Neumarkt in Styria
Ubimet spoke of one of the “severe thunderstorm lines in recent years”, which spread with gusts between 90 and 100 km/h from Lower Carinthia via Styria and the Mostviertel to the Waldviertel. Especially from the Lavanttal and the Koralpe over the Grazer Bergland and the Mur-Mürz-Furche to the Eisenwurzen there were also hurricane-like wind gusts, locally even hurricane gusts of more than 120 km/h.
An evaluation of the national weather service stations shows that the storm has raged most violently in the Styrian districts of Murau, Liezen and Leoben. The frontrunner was the municipality of Neumarkt, which has almost 5,000 inhabitants, where wind gusts of up to 139 km/h were measured at 869 meters. The storm reached 124 km/h in Mooslandl/Hieflau, 117 km/h in the town of Leoben.
“Small-scale extreme events” on the rise
Even experts were surprised by the strength of the thunderstorms: “The strength could not be predicted,” said Josef Eitzinger of the Institute of Meteorology and Climatology at BOKU Vienna. “Due to the high temperatures, there is more energy in the atmosphere. That’s why such violent individual events increase,” says the university professor, who has prepared an equation: “It’s like a car tire, where the air valve is opened and the air flows out with a lot of pressure.” Events in the atmosphere pressure differences. rise in the Alps and cool, creating clouds that release energy. “These thunderstorms are usually very small-scale. Eitzinger recommends taking warnings especially seriously, especially in the current weather situation. Homes or indoor spaces such as caves are good shelters “At least avoid trees and seek protection on stones or rocks in the terrain!”
Next storm front with thunder and heavy rain
The whole cannot be given for the time being: on Friday, thunderstorms with heavy rain already reached the south of the country. In Carinthia, Salzburg and Vorarlberg and in parts of Tyrol there is a local risk of flooding due to heavy rain. Heavy rain and thunderstorms are also expected in the east from the afternoon, the storm center warned. Hail and showers are also possible. The weather situation is not expected to improve until after the weekend.
Source: Krone
I am Ida Scott, a journalist and content author with a passion for uncovering the truth. I have been writing professionally for Today Times Live since 2020 and specialize in political news. My career began when I was just 17; I had already developed a knack for research and an eye for detail which made me stand out from my peers.
