It’s finally raining – but sometimes the longed-for wet falls from the sky in far too large quantities. For Friday and Saturday night, the German Weather Service (DWD) predicts heavy and prolonged showers from the Ore Mountains to the Alps. Isolated strong thunderstorms are possible in north-eastern Germany.

For the south of Bavaria and parts of Baden-Württemberg, the DWD warns of the consequences of extreme continuous rain, up to 140 liters per square meter are expected. According to the DWD, 50 to 80 liters per square meter are possible in other parts of Bavaria and the extreme south-west of Baden-Württemberg.

“These quantities could then swell the Danube and the rivers south of it and cause regional flooding,” explained DWD meteorologist Lars Kirchhübel on Thursday. Heavy showers and thunderstorms could also bring significant amounts of rain in the northeast. The west and the center, on the other hand, get almost nothing.

The consequences could be flooding of basements and streets, flooding in streams and rivers, flooding of streets and landslides. The population was asked to close windows and doors.

After weeks of drought and sometimes severe forest fires, the German Weather Service (DWD) also predicted locally strong, sometimes severe thunderstorms with heavy rain in the east and northeast for this Friday. Occasionally there could also be hailstorms and gusts of wind. In the evening more shower and thunderclouds are expected from the west and north-west. Storms are also possible here.

In addition to heavy rainfall, large parts of Europe are increasingly being hit by dangerous storms and thunderstorms. As the Austrian news agency APA reported, two children were killed by the fallen trees on Lake St. Andrä in the southern province of Carinthia, and another eleven people were injured there.

Furthermore, three people in Gaming in Lower Austria were also killed by a fallen tree. Because of the storms, the Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) stopped traffic in Carinthia, East Tyrol and Styria. According to the motorway operator Asfinag, the southern motorway (A2), which had been closed due to fallen trees and power outages in tunnels, was open again on Friday.

According to the state meteorological service ZAMG, storm speeds of up to 139 kilometers per hour were measured on Thursday. In Styria, tens of thousands of households were cut off from the power supply because high-voltage lines and 2,000 transformer stations were damaged.

“In many cases, our colleagues have to cut their way to the repair work with a chainsaw,” said a spokesman for Energie Steiermark to the ORF broadcaster. It could take days, if not weeks, to fix all the damage.

On Thursday, gusts of wind swept over the French Mediterranean island of Corsica at a speed of more than 200 kilometers per hour. 45,000 households were temporarily without electricity.

Six people died in the storms on the Mediterranean island, including a 13-year-old, when a tree fell on their bungalow at the Le Sagone campsite in the west of the island. A 72-year-old woman was also killed when the blown-off roof of a shack fell on her vehicle, according to authorities. A 46-year-old French tourist died in Calvi when a tree fell on a bungalow. A fisherman and a kayaker also died in the sea off Corsica.

French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin visited Corsica on Thursday evening. 20 people were injured, this is a preliminary balance sheet.

French President Emmanuel Macron pledged support for the island and its residents. A crisis team was formed at Macron’s vacation spot on the Côte d’Azur in the evening, with the participation of Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne

There was a severe weather warning for northern Italy to South Tyrol and large parts of central Italy. Some people suffered injuries in the violent storms with more than 100 kilometers per hour and heavy rain.

In Tuscany, according to local media, two people died in the cities of Lucca and Carrara from falling trees. Around a hundred other people had to be brought to safety before the storms on Thursday, according to the regional authorities in the region, which is popular with holidaymakers.

Tuscany Regional President Eugenio Giani shared on Twitter a video from the coastal town of Piombino of a Ferris wheel being spun by strong winds. Other photos showed cars crushed by trees and devastated beaches. “Unfortunately, it’s not over yet,” Luigi D’Angelo of Italy’s civil defense told La Stampa newspaper (Friday).

The northeast and the center were affected by the storms. Cold air from northern Europe, which meets warm air in the Mediterranean region, is the reason for the heavy downpours, explained the physicist and climate expert Antonio Navarra of the newspaper “Corriere della Sera” (Friday).

In other countries, however, the rains were mainly helpful. In Spain, rain helped contain two large wildfires in the south-eastern region of Valencia. “Finally good news: the rain and the drop in temperature have made it possible to contain the fire in the Vall d’Ebo,” regional president Ximo Puig said on Twitter on Wednesday evening.

In Germany, according to the forecast, denser spring clouds will initially spread over the east and south as well as the north-west on Friday. This is followed in the north-west by occasional, otherwise frequent heavy and sometimes prolonged thunderstorms with the potential for severe weather. On the other hand, it will remain largely dry from the southwest to central Germany and southern Lower Saxony. In addition, it will be between 20 degrees in the Allgäu and 30 degrees in the Rhine-Main area.