Also felt in Germany. Record-breaking storm is heading towards Norway
By Paul Heger January 31, 2024, 4:09 p.m. Listen to article
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Hurricane Dagmar recently hit Norway with incredible wind gusts of over 200 km/h in places. Now an even more threatening hurricane is reaching the country – in some places there is a danger to life. This also affects the weather in Germany.
Fall and winter are the classic storm season on the Atlantic. The water still has a fair amount of warmth from the previous summer, while icy air from polar regions tries to flow south over it. These contrasts cause huge storm depressions to form, which release enormous amounts of energy – a large part in the form of wind.
Last weekend, Hurricane Dagmar moved across the North Atlantic towards the Norwegian Sea and reached Norway with hurricane-force winds. On Monday night the low moved further towards the North Cape. The peak value was 222 km/h, measured at the station on Sluskfjellet, a 400 meter high mountain on the island of Sørøya. Other exposed weather stations further south also reported wind speeds of 160 to almost 200 kilometers per hour. In the valleys it was just a little less.
Severe damage caused by winter hurricane in Northern Europe
The Norwegian authorities warned in advance of the danger to life – and were right. Boats were thrown onto the land, roofs were covered, and in some cases entire houses were destroyed. The power grid temporarily collapsed. The same applied to air, ship and rail transport.
With Storm Dagmar, very mild air was once again transported far to the north. Not much is left of the icy cold winter, with temperatures around minus 30 degrees in large parts of Scandinavia. There was and is a thaw including large amounts of snow and rain. The danger of avalanches is greatly increased. Avalanches buried important access roads, cutting off some regions from the outside world. But the situation has hardly improved when the next storm comes.
Hurricane Ingunn is record-breaking
Hurricane Ingunn, known as Tief Margit in Germany, caused gusts of over 100 kilometers per hour from Scotland to Norway from Tuesday evening to Wednesday afternoon. In the Scottish highlands – known for breathtaking wind speeds – at lunchtime it was sometimes over 170 kilometers per hour.
Storm Ingunn could cause devastation in parts of Norway.
In Norway there was initially calm between the two storms. At lunchtime, speeds of over 130 kilometers per hour were already measured in exposed areas in the Vestland district. This is where the weather station Kråkenes fyr is located, a lighthouse on the western tip of the island of Vågsøy, which is considered the windiest place in Norway. Gusts of up to 223 kilometers per hour and a 10-minute mean wind of an incredible 176 kilometers per hour have been confirmed from January 2016. This corresponds roughly to the force of a Category 3 to 4 hurricane.
Ingunn’s strength could go in similar directions locally. The hurricane is currently moving further north with the strongest gusts over the neighboring region of Trøndelag, where, for example, the city of Ålesund, which is popular with tourists, is located. In the evening and at night, Ingunn continues to work his way across the Nordland with the city of Bodø to the Lofoten Islands. In this approximately 1000 km long strip, peak gusts of between 150 and 180, locally up to 200 kilometers per hour, are possible. In exposed places such as cliffs, on mountains or in unfavorable valleys, speeds of over 200 kilometers per hour are possible – that’s record-breaking.
Hurricane Ingunn could become the new storm of the century
A memorable storm is rarely expressed only by the highest wind speeds. Rather, the damage is relevant. Storm Dagmar gave a foretaste at the beginning of the week. The focus of Ingunn will now be more south. Significantly more people live in these regions and the danger of the storm is likely to be completely different.
On Norwegian state television NRK, Storm Ingunn has long been compared to the New Year’s storm in 1992. At that time there were similarly high wind speeds in similar districts from Vestland to Nordland. Some people lost their homes, belongings and belongings. Now people here are particularly worried that this history will repeat itself and that Ingunn could become a new storm of the century. In order to keep the risk as low as possible, schools and public institutions were closed as a precaution and the population was extensively informed. Nobody should leave the houses because there is a danger to their lives outside, state television NRK said this morning.
Germany is in the sights of the storms
Scandinavia is less far away than some might think. This is especially true for weather systems, which can easily reach us within a day. The frosty air in Sweden last gave us icy times in January. And so we are currently seeing more and more clouds, rain and increasingly windy conditions here in Germany. In fact, these are the same low pressure areas.
From Wednesday evening to Thursday evening, the cold front from Hurricane Ingunn, in our case Tief Margit, will move to the south of Germany and will not only bring rain and cooling, but also strong gusts. On the coasts there are individual gusts of 80, locally 90 kilometers per hour. In the exposed areas of the low mountain ranges, hurricane-like gusts of up to 110 km/h are possible.
After a short break, it will be stormy again this weekend. On Sunday there are likely to be frequent gusts of 80 kilometers per hour on the coasts, and on Monday night also in inland northern Germany. The mountains can expect hurricane gusts of around 130 km/h. This means that the gusts are far removed from those in Norway, but not negligible when scaffolding or falling branches fall over. The stormy weather is expected to continue into next week.