Heavy thunderstorms swept across large parts of Austria on Wednesday. They broke first over Tyrol, especially Innsbruck. In the evening, storms with heavy rain, gusts of wind and hailstones of up to eight centimeters in diameter also raged in other federal states, especially in Carinthia and Styria. The fire brigade had to be called out in many cases.
At the beginning of the week, weather experts announced “the most severe weather conditions in recent years” as a result of the heat wave. The storms unleashed on Wednesday evening, the main danger was due to increased amounts of energy and wind shear in the large hail.In Innsbruck it crashed first. The sky darkened and the first rain showers started around 4:30 p.m. It poured with rain for almost 20 minutes. Then the people of Innsbruck were given a short breather. But it shouldn’t stay dry for long. A short time later, further thunderstorm cells were announced, starting from the mountains. Within a few minutes it cooled down considerably. The temperature dropped from 33 degrees to 21 degrees! In addition, gusts of wind up to 85 km/h were measured. Hailstones as big as table tennis ballsIn Oberhofen (district Innsbruck-Land) it hailed violently at 5.50 p.m. The hailstones were as big as ping-pong balls (see video). Shortly thereafter, pouring rain began. It is not yet known whether damage was caused by the hail. Upper Styria was not spared from the hail either. The hailstones reached diameters of three centimeters and more. In the Styrian Enns Valley there were mudflows, roofs were covered and sometimes even penetrated by thick hailstones. The fire department had to move out. The Mur and Mürz valleys were also affected by the thunderstorm. Due to the heavy rains, emergency services had to deal with flooding, fallen trees and damaged roofs. There was a risk of aquaplaning on motorways. The L19 Innerkremser Straße in the Innerkrems area was also closed due to a mudslide and overflowing streams. From 7 p.m. the highest storm warning level applied to the Klagenfurt-Land and Villach-Land districts. As the police reported, there was hailstorm in the Spittal an der Drau district with hailstones five to eight centimeters in size, causing traffic on the Drautalstraße (B100) to came to a standstill. Heavy hail also fell in Feld am See (see video above) and in Arnoldstein. More than 63,000 lightning bolts were measured. Strong thunderstorms were also in the Weinviertel in Lower Austria. Late in the evening, the thunderstorm with lightning, thunder and rain also briefly descended on Vienna. With the exception of Vorarlberg, at least a few lightning bolts were measured in every federal state today. A particularly large number of lightning bolts were recorded in Styria, followed by Tyrol, Lower Austria and Carinthia, according to the Ubimet storm control center. In total there were around 63,500 discharges by 9 p.m.
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