Warning of flooding: inconsistent weather with thunderstorms and heavy rain expected

With great urgency, the German Weather Service warned the southwest of North Rhine-Westphalia against extremely heavy continuous rain on Tuesday.

Between Tuesday morning and Thursday morning, rainfall between 80 and 180 liters per square meter is expected, said the weather authority in Essen.

"As a result of the continuous rain, among other things, floods in streams and smaller rivers as well as flooding of streets are possible," wrote the DWD.

Landslides are also possible.

The meteorologists advised: "Close all windows and doors!"

The official severe weather warning of the highest warning level applies to the districts of Euskirchen, Aachen, Düren, Bonn, the Rhein-Erft district and parts of Cologne and the Rhein-Sieg district.

A low over Germany will bring inconsistent and rainy weather into the country in the coming days.

The southwest is particularly affected, as the DWD, based in Offenbach, announced on Tuesday morning.

On Tuesday afternoon there can be thunderstorms and heavy rain.

In the evening and on Wednesday night, these thunderstorms shift further north, then Thuringia and Saxony could be particularly affected.

Heavy heavy rain, heavy hail and heavy squalls are possible locally.

In north-eastern Germany, however, it is clear and dry until evening.

The maximum temperatures on Tuesday in the southwest and west are 18 to 24 degrees, otherwise 22 to 30 degrees, in the east up to 32 degrees.

Also in the night of Wednesday there can be thunderstorms and heavy rain in some areas.

In the far north and north-east it is dry.

The lowest values ​​are in the north and east at 21 to 17 degrees, in the south and west at 16 to 10 degrees.

On Wednesday it rains partly heavily in some areas.

In the west and parts of the center, the DWD warns of severe weather through repeated heavy rainfalls.

In the north and north-east, heavy showers and thunderstorms do not come until the afternoon and evening.

The maximum temperatures are between 18 to 25 degrees in the southwest half and 24 to 31 degrees in the northeast half.

Floods in Franconia

On Friday, the continuous rain ensured that rivers and streams overflowed their banks in large parts of Franconia and that the sewer system was overwhelmed in places.

The result was widespread flooding.

At times, entire areas of land were under water.

The damage is likely to run into the millions.

At the beginning of the week, the situation in large parts of the Franconia had eased again.

The Bavarian State Office for the Environment announced on Monday that the second highest reporting level 3 was only reached at a level near Höchstadt on the Aisch river.

There, too, the trend is slowly falling.

Bavaria's Environment Minister Thorsten Glauber (Free Voters) warned of further flood events due to the changing climate.

"These forces of nature will increase in the next few years," said Glauber on Monday.

“These are seascapes that arise there and the need for flood protection is made clear to everyone here.” At the Aisch, water levels were reached on the weekend like never before.

The district of Neustadt an der Aisch - Bad Windsheim and the city of Ansbach had already ended the previously declared disaster at the weekend.

Should it come to local heavy rain again during the week, this could lead to flooding again, it said.

In other parts of western Central Franconia, in Swabia and on the Danube, only reporting levels 1 and 2 would be reached, and in many places the threshold for reporting levels was no longer reached. In Upper Franconia, too, the fire brigades reported an easing of the situation, for example in the areas around Hof and Bamberg that were particularly affected on Friday.

The fire brigade in the Forchheim district said that some areas downstream of the areas particularly affected on Friday had felt the long-term effects with a delay: The flood wave only came in Hallerndorf (Forchheim district), which is about 40 kilometers downstream from Neustadt an der Aisch on Saturday afternoon. The water had risen by more than a meter within an hour, said a fire department spokesman on Monday. There was a widespread flood. The water drains off very slowly, but by Monday it had at least withdrawn from the built-up areas. Reporting level three means that the cellar is under water and fire brigade operations are necessary. At reporting level 1, rivers only occasionally and easily overflow their banks.