The storm is moving further east. There is a risk of severe weather with hail, storms and heavy rain until the evening – Leipzig is also affected, where the Netherlands and France are playing against each other. You can read all about the current situation in the weather ticker.
Friday, June 21, 6:19 a.m.: Due to the threat of severe weather, things could get uncomfortable for football fans on Friday. The German Weather Service (DWD) is expecting thunderstorms in large parts of Germany, especially from late Friday morning until midday, with heavy rain, gusts of wind and hail in some places. The low pressure system will initially move over the southwest and west during the day and will also spread to the northwest and south in the afternoon.
According to the DWD, there is an increased risk of severe weather from early afternoon to evening, particularly in the southeast and east, with large hail, heavy storm and hurricane gusts and heavy rain of up to 40 liters per square meter. In the east, isolated tornadoes cannot be ruled out.
The Netherlands and France will meet in the top match of Group D at the European Football Championship on Friday. The teams will play in Leipzig in the evening (9 p.m./ARD and MagentaTV). The fan zone there was temporarily closed on Tuesday for safety reasons due to the threat of bad weather. The fan zones in other federal states also remained closed as a precaution. It remains unclear whether some organizers will also take this measure on Friday.
Supercell near Munich – first hail, danger of tornadoes
4.45 p.m.: Now it’s happening: rotation has started in the storm cell south of Munich. We are now dealing with a supercell. The first hail is appearing. Be careful, there is a risk of large hail and an increased risk of tornadoes!
3.18 p.m.: Hail, heavy rain and gusts of wind: The German Weather Service (DWD) is again expecting strong thunderstorms in the south and east of Germany.
From Thursday afternoon, there is initially a risk of thunderstorms in Upper Bavaria, the DWD in Offenbach announced. In local so-called supercells, i.e. thunderstorm cells with particularly high energy, hurricane gusts with wind speeds of up to 130 kilometers per hour are possible.
The weather service also warned of hailstones several centimeters in diameter. Heavy rain with up to 30 liters per square meter is also expected.
Thursday, June 20, 4:01 a.m.: The second match day of the European Football Championship is also in danger of being a washout for fans outside the Leipzig stadium. “There are signs of another storm in the second half of Friday,” said Florian Engelmann of the German Weather Service when asked. Heavy rain is to be expected, but storms and hail cannot be ruled out.
On Tuesday, the European Championship fan zone on Augustusplatz was closed for safety reasons due to a storm a few minutes before kick-off.
On Friday, the Netherlands and France will meet in Leipzig. According to the organizers of the fan zone, up to 40,000 fans from the Netherlands alone are expected. Colorful marches by fans of both teams are also planned.
It is still unclear how severe the storm will hit Leipzig on Friday, stressed meteorologist Engelmann. However, there will definitely be more rain than on Tuesday. It is not yet possible to estimate how high the wind speeds will be.
11.55: The Sahara dust is here and there is still a little rain, so yes, there could be blood rain on Wednesday. The dust cloud will continue to keep us busy in the coming days.
The blood rain will continue throughout Wednesday evening in Thuringia, Saxony and Brandenburg and may affect some football events. In Bavaria there is a risk of showers, particularly on the edge of the Alps.
08.22 a.m.: A person was seriously injured in the severe storms on Tuesday evening in the Elbe-Elster district of Brandenburg. As a spokesman for the Lausitz regional control center said on Wednesday, a tree fell on a moving car. The driver was taken to hospital.
In total, the control center had about 80 to 90 weather-related operations – mostly due to fallen trees and some due to lightning strikes. In Cottbus, a house burned down after a lightning strike, but no one was injured.
8:00 a.m.: People in Bavaria have to be prepared for rain when watching football – including the match between Germany and Hungary. In the north of Bavaria, meteorologists are expecting local heavy rain with precipitation amounts of around 25 litres per square metre “in a short time or in a few hours”. The DWD is also talking about heavy gusts of wind of around 90 kilometres per hour. People in the direction of the Alps must also expect hailstones up to three centimetres in size.
According to the DWD, there will be plenty of sunshine in southern Bavaria for a long time. But people can expect isolated thunderstorms there in the late afternoon and evening.
06.41 a.m.: After storm-related damage to the overhead line, the train line between Dresden and Berlin will remain closed on Wednesday. The clearing and repair work will continue throughout the day, and trains will be diverted, a Deutsche Bahn spokesman said on Wednesday morning.
On Tuesday evening, a Eurocity train on its way to Prague was stranded in Brandenburg after a tree fell on the overhead line. At Elsterwerda (Elbe-Elster district), passengers had to leave the train and were transported on by bus. Deutsche Bahn did not have any figures on Wednesday about how many people were affected. The spokesman also said that no forecast could be made as to how long the line would remain closed.
Wednesday, June 19, 6:15 a.m.: Flooded streets, stranded train passengers and closed European Championship fan zones: Strong thunderstorms with severe weather potential have swept across parts of Germany. Regions in a wide strip in the middle of Germany from west to east were affected.
Ultimately, Germany got off relatively lightly with the recent thunderstorms. There were isolated accidents on the roads because of water on the road surfaces. According to the police, a car on the A4 motorway near Weimar skidded, probably due to aquaplaning, and collided with a truck carrying hazardous goods. The truck then caught fire.
In the south of Thuringia, large hailstones damaged cars and corrugated iron roofs. According to the police, no one was injured. A street in the district of Hildburghausen was completely covered with hailstones the size of golf balls. The street has been cleared and is passable again, the police said. There were no accidents.
The fire brigade in Grevenbroich in North Rhine-Westphalia was also called out due to heavy rainfall. In two cases, car occupants had to be rescued after their vehicles got stuck in flooded underpasses, the city’s fire brigade reported. In parts of the city particularly affected by the rain, water in basements was up to a meter high, and water had entered apartments from canals.
10.40 p.m.: The German Weather Service is still warning of severe storms over Germany. These will be accompanied by hurricane-force gusts, hail and heavy rain. The red warning level currently applies to 13 districts:
Teltow-Fläming district, Dahme-Spreewald district, Spree-Neiße district, Oberspreewald-Lausitz district, Elbe-Elster district, Meißen district, Leipzig district, Central Saxony – lowland district, Central Saxony – mountainous district, Chemnitz city, Altenburger Land district, Zwickau – lowland district, Greiz district
8.16 p.m.: Strong gusts of wind have triggered several operations in the Meißen district. The fire department reported a tornado in the small town of Gröditz to the control center, a police spokesman said on Tuesday when asked. Among other things, a tree fell onto the railway tracks there. According to current information, no one was injured.
The federal police have been notified, and the Deutsche Bahn emergency department has also been informed. According to the German Weather Service, a tornado is “quite possible”, but this needs to be checked first, they said.
The German Weather Service had warned of severe thunderstorms with hail and heavy gusts of wind in Saxony. However, it was initially unclear when the storm would reach Saxony and whether it would also affect Leipzig.
8.14 p.m.: The announced storms have led to a large number of fire department operations in southern Brandenburg. There are currently around 120 operations in the area of the Lausitz regional control center, a spokesman said on Tuesday evening at around 7.30 p.m. The main problem is damage caused by strong winds. There are numerous fallen trees, it was said. The regional control center is responsible for Cottbus and the districts of Spree-Neiße, Oberspreewald-Lausitz, Dahme-Spreewald and Elbe-Elster. The German Weather Service had warned of severe thunderstorms in this region.
6.48 p.m.: During a storm in southern Thuringia, large hailstones damaged several cars and corrugated iron roofs. No one was injured, a police spokesman said on Tuesday evening when asked. In addition, a local county road in the Hildburghausen district was completely covered with golf ball-sized hailstones. The road has now been cleared and is passable again. There were no accidents.
You can read more about the current weather conditions on the next pages.
