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. In 24 hours it could be up to 60, in some areas up to 120 liters per square meter of rain, the DWD announced on Thursday in Offenbach.
“These quantities could then swell the Danube and the rivers south of it and cause regional flooding,” explained DWD meteorologist Lars Kirchhübel. 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.
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, the 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.
During storms in Corsica, a 13-year-old died when a tree fell on her 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.
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.
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.
