Monday, January 22, 2007
Hurricane Kyrill
I didn’t know Germany could be subjected to hurricanes, but apparently that explains the wild wind and weather we had late last week. Actually, the storm should be more correctly called an "Orkan" or "Sturmtief" (low-pressure system), but one way to translate it into English is “hurricane” because it packs hurricane-force winds. In either case, according to an embassy summary of news reports, the storm had quite an impact:
Other coverage of the storm is at: http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/01/18/germany.storm.reut/index.html and http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,2317752,00.html?maca=en-tagesschau_englisch-335-rdf-mp.
After surviving what Kyrill dished out last week, it looks like winter is finally on its way here. We are under a severe weather advisory beginning tonight -- for snow. Yes, snow! More correctly, the first snow of the season. Last winter, our first snow came in mid-November, so we’re more than two months behind that timeline. Then again, this is the warmest winter Europe has seen in more than 100 years! Depending on which forecast you believe, it could hit us with a vengeance...up to 4-8 inches tomorrow and another 5-7 inches on Wednesday. Guess Mother Nature could make up for the past two months without snow!
These photos are from last year, the first from on post, the second looking at the valley below Schloss Neuschwanstein. It will be interesting to see how thick of a white blanket we have during the next few days! I doubt it will last until the weekend though.
All papers are full of reports on Hurricane "Kyrill" that blasted Germany on Thursday, forcing flight cancellations, the shutting of schools, and prompting authorities to warn people to secure loose items on balconies and gardens. Deutsche Bahn ordered its high-speed ICE trains to slow down to 200 km/h and later canceled all trains and asked passengers to leave all trains for security reasons. Tens of thousands of people were stranded all over Germany. All papers also reported that Secretary Rice cut short her visit to Berlin due to the storm canceling an interview with ARD-TV in order to leave for London before the winds worsened.The wind blew down a tree in the elementary school playground, and several roof shingles apparently were blown off (at least) one of the three-story buildings on post. Tree branches were strewn all over the place. Stuttgart had sustained wind speeds of nearly 38 mph (61 km/h) with gusts of 58 mph (93 km/h) during the storm. Fortunately, the worst of the storm hit during the night, when we were already at home and bunkered down. But, I definitely heard the wind howling as I went to bed!
Other coverage of the storm is at: http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/01/18/germany.storm.reut/index.html and http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,2317752,00.html?maca=en-tagesschau_englisch-335-rdf-mp.
After surviving what Kyrill dished out last week, it looks like winter is finally on its way here. We are under a severe weather advisory beginning tonight -- for snow. Yes, snow! More correctly, the first snow of the season. Last winter, our first snow came in mid-November, so we’re more than two months behind that timeline. Then again, this is the warmest winter Europe has seen in more than 100 years! Depending on which forecast you believe, it could hit us with a vengeance...up to 4-8 inches tomorrow and another 5-7 inches on Wednesday. Guess Mother Nature could make up for the past two months without snow!These photos are from last year, the first from on post, the second looking at the valley below Schloss Neuschwanstein. It will be interesting to see how thick of a white blanket we have during the next few days! I doubt it will last until the weekend though.
Labels: Pam's thoughts
