Deadly night in Germany: Stay inside – second storm expected Tuesday afternoon

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Written by Linda Hohnholz

Tourists and residents in Duesseldorf, Germany, are bracing for a second big storm due to arrive in North Rhine Westphalia’s capital city this Tuesday afternoon.

Tourists and residents in Duesseldorf, Germany, are bracing for a second big storm due to arrive in North Rhine Westphalia’s capital city this Tuesday afternoon. Police suggested that people not leave their homes and hotels.

The German state of North Rhine-Westphalia was hit the worst by heavy storms in Germany on Monday night, following a holiday weekend of scorching sunshine.

Several trains were stopped inside train stations and passengers guided into shelters. High winds, thunder and lightning, and heavy rains disrupted air traffic, public transport, and the roads in several cities.

State capital Düsseldorf was in the firing line, with fallen trees rendering several roads useless in the south of the city. Residents reported power failures; and damage to tram lines brought the public transport network to a standstill.

The Düsseldorf’s airport was forced to halt traffic for around an hour in response to gusts of wind measuring up to 150 kilometers per hour (93.2 miles per hour).

Six people died during the storm.

National rail operator Deutsche Bahn was also forced to delay or stop services in some of the worst-affected areas on Monday evening.

Heavy hail storms hit several cities, with residents of Warstein to the east reporting hailstones roughly the diameter of bottle caps.

The storm front was moving east across the country overnight, heading towards Lower Saxony, with Germany’s meteorological service issuing storm warnings for the regions around Hanover and Bremen. Stormy and wet weather was forecast to persist in much of the country for several days following a spell of high temperatures.

The bank-holiday “Pfingsten” or Pentecost weekend in Germany was the hottest since records began, according to information from the DWD German weather service. The mercury rose highest on Monday in the Bavarian town of Kitzingen, peaking at 36.7 degrees Celsius (98.06 Fahrenheit). The former record for the day, 33.8 Celsius in Nuremberg in 2000, was topped in several places around the country on Monday.

More storms are predicted in the Duesseldorf region Tuesday afternoon.

About the author

Avatar of Linda Hohnholz

Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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