Germany: Storm warning issued as country reels from floods

Weather officials issued a storm warning for parts of western Germany, while Bavaria might face flash floods. Across the country, survivors of last week’s tragedy are bracing for more heavy rain.

Heavy showers and gusts of wind of up to 70 kilometers (43.5 miles) per hour were scheduled to hit parts of northwest Germany on Saturday, the country’s weather agency DWD said. In the southern state of Bavaria, weather experts warned that “extreme flash floods” were possible.

However, the scope of the storms is expected to be far less severe than the heavy rainfall which caused catastrophic floods and resulted in almost 200 people losing their lives. Some 30,000 survivors are still without electricity or drinking water.

The floods have devastated multiple regions in the states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Rheinland-Palatinate, which are now bracing for even more rainfall.

The weather agency also warned of increased storm risk in the state of Saarland, which borders Rheinland-Palatinate. Germany’s southern Alpine regions, near to Switzerland and Austria, are also at risk of “severe thunderstorms with strong showers, squalls … and hail.”

German authorities said they were using social media and flyers to warn people in the areas that might be affected.

Storms likely to be ‘localized’

The weekend’s storms predicted will include heavy showers, thunderstorms and hail, but weather experts also said storms are expected to be “strictly localized.”

Rainfall of around 10 to 25 liters per square meter (510 to 1276 cubic inches per square yard) over a one to three-hour period is anticipated in North Rhine-Westphalia, which is Germany’s most populous state.

In isolated cases up to 40 liters of rain per square meter is possible.

However, as we move into Sunday, the showers and thunderstorms will move with some momentum in a northerly direction towards Lower Saxony, where the storms are expected to dissipate.