Since the night of Thursday, the storm Ylenia has been causing violent winds across Europe. Germany is particularly badly affected, but the hurricane gusts are also noticeable in Switzerland. In Germany, there were gusts of 125 km/h at low altitudes and gusts of 152 km/h at higher altitudes. In some places, the storm has uprooted trees and triggered numerous firefighting operations.
“These are wind speeds that we don’t experience every year, even in the lowlands,” says Adrian Leyser from the German Weather Service to “Focus.de”. The Berlin fire brigade even declared a state of emergency early Thursday morning due to the Ylenia storm. The storm also affected rail and air traffic. Fallen trees hampered trains. Several flights also had to be canceled in Germany.
Swiss weather flash: This is how the weather will be today(01:33)
Railway disruption during rush hour
The gusts of wind have also swept across Switzerland. On the Säntis, the gusts peaked at 152 km/h. In the lowlands, the storm blew at 85 km/h in Arbon TG and at 71 km/h in Lucerne. Although Switzerland was not as badly affected as Germany or Great Britain, the storm also caused damage in this country.
The storm even paralyzed the train on Thursday morning: a tree fell between Aarau and Brugg AG. According to the rail traffic information, the disruption lasted until around 8 a.m. The SBB used replacement buses between Brugg and Wildegg. The exposed stretch between Appenzell and Wasserauen AI was closed due to the storm. The Appenzeller Bahnen used replacement buses between Weissbad AI and Wasserauen.
The situation calms down in the afternoon
As Meteonews Switzerland writes, the wind peaks have so far reached between 60 and 90 km/h in Switzerland in the lowlands, locally sometimes even more. In the coming hours, however, it is not to be expected that the storm in Switzerland will get stronger – the peak of the gusts has been reached in many places. The wind will calm down in the afternoon.
The wind is initially weak on Friday morning, but picks up again in the course of the evening. According to the meteorologist, Saturday will remain calm. From Sunday he will be back and will probably stay until Monday. (ced/euc/dzc)