Storms Hit Northern Europe
Yesterday I wrote about the storm that hit the Netherlands that day. Today, AmericaBlog noticed reports:
It’s pretty calm now but lots of noise last night. Fortunately for those of us in Paris the winds were not that bad, especially compared to the Christmas storm a few years ago (1998?) when Versailles lost thousands of trees and we even had two trees in the yard snap. The storm yesterday was quite serious, not to mention highly unusual, for those in the UK, Netherlands and into Germany. Any signs of the winds where you are for the early morning crew?
To answer that question: yesterday truly was horrible. My parents were visiting my sister in the south of the country and could not return yesterday evening, so they returned today. Today is windy, but it’s nothing compared to yesterday. However, as I understand it, we’ll be hit by another storm tomorrow.
CNN: Storm kills 27 in northern Europe.
Hurricane-force winds and heavy downpours hammered northern Europe on Thursday, killing 27 people and disrupting travel for tens of thousands — including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, whose plane circled for 15 minutes before landing amid winds gusting to 77 mph.
The storms were among the fiercest in years, ripping off part of the roof at Lord’s Cricket Ground in London, toppling a crane in the Netherlands and upending trucks on Europe’s busiest highway.
By evening, weather-related accidents had killed 27 people, including a 2-year-old boy hit by falling brick from a toppled wall in London.
Rice cut short her visit to Berlin in order to leave for London before winds worsened, landing at Heathrow Airport in winds gusting up to 77 mph.
“It’s not often you get winds of that sort of strength that far inland,” said John Hammond of Britain’s weather office. “(Rice) did well to land there, I wouldn’t have fancied doing that.”
Also from CNN:
In Amsterdam, bicyclists who ventured out despite warnings from the fire department were blown over or, in some cases, blown backward.
Serious. Who in his right mind would go out to bicycle with windspeeds up to 130 km/h? That’s idiotic.
opinions powered by SendLove.to
5 Responses to “Storms Hit Northern Europe”
This post reminds me of hurricane season in the US. I’ve seen videos of weather coverage in the US and I find it surreal. I remember in Katrina, reporters standing outside, grabbing onto telephone poles trucks or railings with debris flying about saying “there are terrible winds, the government has indicated that no one should be outdoors. It would be really stupid to be outside right now”. Somehow the irony of the situation utterly escaped them.
Spain is supposed to get the tail end of the storm tomorrow or the day after, especially snow in the mountains, but not worriesome. Stay safe, Michael.
Oh, it’s not just the reporters, Lynx. When I lived in FL, every time there was a hurricane offshore there were a bunch of fools at the beach with their surfboards, well past the time when it was safe to be out there.
Your bicyclists sound like American golfers (who golf at night, in the rain, in the snow) unless that’s their only available mode of transportation.
Holly, the government told people to stay inside.
I live in Tornado Alley, and I always get a chuckle out of the number of people who go outside to videotape tornados. I think of it as evolution in action.
Around here we get 100+ mph storm winds frequently, but we’re used to it. If you’re not used to it, it’s a shocker. We don’t go out and try to ride bicycles in it!