The weekend started with sweltering heat. Although my wife and me were groaning under 30 °C our daughter had fun. She spent two days with two friends of hers having fun in the paddle pool and yesterday we spent the day on the playground an in the ice cream parlour.
But in the evening the sky darkenend and some thick clouds gathered above the Ruhr area. Quite fitting I though because on TV Richard III. and Anne Neville were weaving the plot to put Richard's nephews out of the way. But what followed was beyond imagination.
Fortunately our area isn't treated by severe whether too often. The Ruhr doesn't leave its riverbed and luckily we never experience more than a filled up basement now an then. But yesterday evening a tempest racked over the Ruhr and Rhine area. I've never experienced such a thunderstorm, heavy rain and demonstration of natural power. The stuff on our balcony was thrown over and small branches were snapped off the trees. The tempest lastet for about an hour and today our housing estate was covered with leaves and small branches over and over.
But a pictures of real devastation awaited me when I left for work this morning:
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| Universitätsstraße - One of the major exit roads of Bochum... |
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| Another impression of Universitätsstraße |
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| A shattered tree near... |
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| And another one which my wife photographed on her way to the doctors... |
Similar pictures all around Bochum and the affected cities. All major streets in Bochum are blocked and most tramlines are interrupted. This morning our main station Bochum Hauptbahnhof was completely decommissioned. Fortunately I've only heard of five fataleties so far. Undoubtlesly every casualty is too much but seeing this destruction a lot more harm could have occured when the tempest had taken place earlier during the day.
So my weekend had a rather thrilling end...
Ach du heilger - ich hab zwar gehört, das es bei Euch ganz besonders schlimm war, aber das sieht ja echt übel aus.
ReplyDeleteHi Thomas,
Deletein der Tat muss ich sagen, "Mitendrin statt nur dabei" ist beeindruckend. Wenn man solche Bilder nicht live erlebt hat, machen einem die Medien keinen richtigen Eindruck. Für mich persönlich war es wirklich das schlimmste Unwetter, in dem ich bisher steckte.
Und heute höre ich den ganzen Tag schon Kettensägen...
Viele Grüße
Stefan
Hallo auch,
Deletealso doch so böse wie es aussah. Bei uns an der Sieg und im Westerwald war es nur etwas stürmisch....holla die Waldfee sag ich da nur...
Grüße
Andreas aka
Bei Kyrill 2007 war's genau umgekehrt. Da war es bei uns noch einigermaßen glimpflich, aber das Sauerland und der Westerwald haben verheerend gelitten.
DeleteUnd natürlich war der Orkan gesamtdeutsch gesehen viel schlimmer als das Unwetter gestern.
Grüße
Stefan
Oh ja, das war halt ne heftige Gewitterzelle bzw. mehrere bei euch.. Kyrill war was anderes, wir haben noch 2010 die letzten Holzschäden im Wald aufarbeiten müssen. Das war ein Schaden der war heftig...
DeleteLiebe Grüße
Andreas aka
Goodness me, that looks a torrential downpour to have done that much damage!
ReplyDeleteIndeed it was but the storm was even worse. In 2007 we had a hurricane with hit northern Europe and especially Germany very hard. Overall seen it was much worse the the tempest yesterday but for Bochum and especially for us personally it was a impressive experience.
DeleteCheers
Stefan
Erinnert mich an den Norden, als Christian über uns hinweggefegt ist.
ReplyDeleteDa sahs in Glücksburg auch nur wenig anders aus.
Wow! That really is incredible!
ReplyDeleteWir hatten hier gleichzeits auch eine Sturm aber nicht so übel als in Bochum, glücklich zeit ihr allen OK!
ReplyDeleteGrüsse Sander
Quite a powerful storm! Glad to hear you are ok.
ReplyDeleteWe have had our own early heat wave of 40 degrees plus. At least it is a dry heat though!
As long as you and your family are okay my friend, shocking stuff!
ReplyDeleteShocking pictures! Pleased to hear that you are all in good health!
ReplyDeleteGreetings
Peter
I was thinking of my German friends today when I heard the reports. I'm happy you managed through the weather in good order. To be sure, Mother Nature is a force to respect.
ReplyDeleteMany thanks for your participation and caring comments. I must confess that yesterday evening was very impressive for me but I'm happy and thankful that neither my family nor our friends got affected directly.
ReplyDeleteCheers
Stefan
At least you and your family are all ok, nature's a strange beast!!
ReplyDeleteGood to hear you survived and are safe!
ReplyDeleteIt apparently is the time of the change. The weather is changing. The climate is changing .... the world is changing. Who would have thought Tolkien's words: "The world is in change I can feel it in the air, I can feel it in the earth, I feel it in the water." Even the good old Bible says it ...
ReplyDeleteCrikey! That's an intense little storm cell!
ReplyDeleteIt looks much the same here. Most impressive is the Oak a couple of hundred meters from our house where the trunk simply snapped right about ground. And that one was not even rotten or anything.
ReplyDeleteWe were actually quiet lucky. No damage to our house or the trees in our garden and none of the felled trees in the neighbouring gardens hit ours!