Power outages, trains that don't run, planes that stay on the ground: hurricane "Ylenia" had Germany firmly in its grip on Thursday.

In Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt, motorists were killed by falling trees.

Collapsing trees and branches damaged power lines and track systems.

There was no serious damage to property;

the storm is likely to be expensive.

The consulting company Meyerthole Siems Kohlruss, which specializes in ratings for insurance companies, estimates the insured damage for Germany at around 500 million euros.

Othmara glass

volunteer

  • Follow I follow

Phenomena like Ylenia are not unusual.

"It was a typical winter storm and not particularly bad," says Andreas Friedrich from the German Weather Service.

"We have them every few years." The winter storms probably have nothing to do with climate change, which has led to more extreme weather events in recent years.

"In the case of the flood in the Ahr Valley, we could clearly say that it is related to climate change." Storms like Ylenia, on the other hand, occur in winter, when the temperature differences between the Arctic and the subtropics in the northern hemisphere are particularly large, explains the meteorologist.

An accumulation was not observed.

"There are significant fluctuations every year."

Canceled flights

As a precaution, Deutsche Bahn had stopped long-distance traffic in northern Germany for safety reasons, and local and regional traffic were also affected.

The restrictions were also felt in other parts of Germany.

On Thursday afternoon there were train cancellations and delays in many places.

The railway has therefore canceled the train connection for cheaper tickets;

Long-distance tickets for Thursday, Friday and Saturday can be used flexibly up to February 26 or canceled free of charge.

Rail freight was also affected.

In the large terminals and marshalling yards in northern Germany, train formation and loading were delayed, DB announced.

Train cancellations and delays are expected for a few more days, especially since the next hurricane is already on its way to Germany.

Because of the strong gusts of wind, Lufthansa canceled 20 flights at Frankfurt Airport.

The share price fell slightly on Thursday.

About a dozen flights were also canceled at Hamburg Airport.

There were delays in Berlin.

The next storm low comes on Friday

Especially the north was affected by Ylenia.

The Lower Elbe was closed to large ships.

A cruise ship could not enter the port of Hamburg as planned.

As the shipping company AIDA Cruises announced at the request of the FAZ on Thursday afternoon, the ship crossed east of Heligoland.

"We currently expect that the ship will probably enter the port of Hamburg tomorrow morning for the planned changeover day." The Hamburg port authority says that it is not unusual for ships to have to wait.

"There are always delays, especially now that it's storm surge season."

According to the DWD, however, it is unusual that the next storm low is already threatening with “Zeynep” in the night from Friday to Saturday.

"The fact that two or even three hurricanes occur one after the other only happens every five to ten years," says Friedrich.

Since Zeynep is a fast runner, predictions about the track are difficult.

However, it could have its center of gravity over the German Bight.

The foothills would then also be felt in the middle of Germany.

The meteorologist warns that trees in particular that are not particularly well fixed in the moist soil could fall over.

At the beginning of the month, the European Environment Agency calculated that extreme weather events in Europe between 1980 and 2020 caused damage of a good 500 billion euros.

Germany alone was affected with 110 billion euros.

At 15.6 billion euros, the most expensive extratropical winter storm to date was Lothar, which swept across Central Europe in 1999.