Tornado risk and summer thunderstorms forecast for Germany

Heavy rain and summer thunderstorms are expected to cross Germany on Thursday and into Friday morning, with tornado risk warnings being issued for some areas.

Tornado warning issued for Germany

The German Weather Service (DWD) has issued an “increased risk of tornadoes” warning as summer thunderstorms and heavy rainfall are forecast to cross Germany on Thursday.

The “heavy thunderstorm in conjunction with sultry to subtropical air” is expected to first hit North Rhine-Westphalia and southern parts of Rhineland-Palatinate around midday before moving on to Lower Saxony. 

The wet weather will be combined with gale-force winds reaching 120 kilometres per hour and temperatures of between 26 and 31 degrees across the country. Cologne, Mainz and Hanover are the German cities forecast to see the heaviest downpour and the DWD has said that large hailstones are also likely to make an appearance once the heavens open.

A strip of land which passes from eastern North Rhine-Westphalia across Hesse, Lower Franconia, Thuringia and southern Saxony-Anhalt is the region that is at increased risk of tornadoes. 

Calmer weather to return on Friday

In Bavaria and Saxony-Anhalt, the stormy weather will continue through the night and into Friday.

The extremely heavy rainfall will then move further eastwards and north to Brandenburg, Berlin and Hamburg. Between Thursday and Friday morning, 30 to 50 litres of rain per square metre is expected to fall. 

In recent years, climate change has made heavy summer rainfall in Europe between 3 and 19 percent stronger and 1,2 to nine times more likely, according to data published by climate scientists at the World Weather Attribution (WWA) in 2021.

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