The expected storm surge for the western part of the Baltic Sea has temporarily halted German-Danish ferry traffic. As shipping company Scandlines announced on Friday, ferry services on the Puttgarden-Rødby and Rostock-Gedser routes had to be temporarily stopped due to extremely strong easterly winds. About one in ten flights at Copenhagen airport will be canceled on Friday due to the storm over the Baltic Sea. In England the weather even claimed a life (see video above).
So far, 71 of the 750 scheduled flights to and from Copenhagen have been canceled, the airport announced on Twitter on Friday morning. Relatively many delays can therefore be expected.
Metres-high storm surge hits Denmark
The Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI) has announced showers in the south and east of the country for Friday. According to the DMI, the storm surge caused by the easterly wind could lead to water levels of up to 2.4 meters above normal on the south and east coast of Denmark.
In Rostock, Germany, where ferries no longer departed on Thursday evening, all nine departures for Friday were canceled and the first departure at 12.45 pm for Saturday was also cancelled. This means that no ships would sail in the opposite direction either. Regular service is expected to resume Saturday morning, the agency said. On the Baltic Sea coast, the first streets and bank areas were flooded as a result of the storm surge. On Friday morning, numerous streets in Wismar, Kiel and Flensburg were already flooded.
“Hurricane storms possible”
The German Weather Service (DWD) assumes that the storm over the Baltic Sea will reach its peak on Friday afternoon and slowly decrease after midnight. “On the Baltic Sea coast and on the islands, stormy wind gusts are possible until about 2 a.m.,” DWD meteorologist Anne Wiese told the dpa in Hamburg.
As shipping company Scandlines announced on Friday, ferry services on the Puttgarden-Rødby and Rostock-Gedser routes had to be temporarily suspended due to extremely strong easterly winds. About one in ten flights at Copenhagen airport will be canceled on Friday due to the storm over the Baltic Sea.
Strong winds push water towards the coast
Storm surges are caused by strong winds that push water towards the coast. The same wind pushes away the water in the North Sea, causing water levels to become extremely low. This also had consequences for shipping traffic on Friday morning.
Numerous ferries to the islands have been cancelled. In the morning, the ferries between Föhr, Amrum and Dagebüll of the Wyker Dampfschiffs-Reederei remained on land and several ferries between Pellworm and Nordstrand were also cancelled. The islands of Juist, Baltrum, Spiekeroog and Wangerooge were not accessible by ferry on Friday, the ferry companies reported on their websites. The ferry service to Wangerooge should also be canceled on Saturday. On Friday there were cancellations and changed departure times in ferry traffic to the islands of Langeoog and Norderney.
Fire brigades in action in Northern Germany
Fire brigades were also deployed elsewhere because of the storm. A tree fell on the track on the route between Neumünster and Brokstedt. Regional traffic between Hamburg and Kiel was partially stopped. Replacement buses ran. The Schleswig-Holstein state forests had also warned against entering the forests because of the storm. During storms, strong branches in the forests can break and trees fall, making a stay in the forests life-threatening.
Source: Krone
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