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WEATHER

Niklas sweeps through northern Switzerland

UPDATED: Vestiges of Hurricane Niklas swept through northern Switzerland and parts of the Alps on Tuesday, uprooting trees, damaging buildings, blowing down signs and causing the death of one motorist and at least a dozen injuries, according to media reports.

Published: 1 April 2015 08:00 CEST
Niklas sweeps through northern Switzerland
Tree blown down by storm halts train in Lower Saxony, Germany. Photo: DPA

Winds gusting between 70 kilometres and 100 kilometres an hour were recorded in the Swiss plateau and exceeded 160 km/h in parts of the Alps, the ATS news agency reported.

A 75-year-old man died in Andelfingen in the canton of Zurich when a tree fell on his car as he was driving on a road through the woods, cantonal police said.

The victim died before emergency rescue workers could extricate him from the vehicle. 

Elsewhere, a 77-year-old cyclist was injured after being struck by a trampoline that blew off the balcony of an apartment building in the municipality of Kriens in the canton of Lucerne, ATS said.

A 57-year-old woman received minor injuries when a tree fell on her car in Bubikon in the canton of Zurich.

Police in the canton responded to 100 calls for assistance during the storm, which originated in northern Europe.

Niklas was blamed for at least three deaths in Germany, The Local Germany reported.

Saxony-Anhalt police said a man was crushed to death when a concrete wall blew down near Magdeburg in eastern Germany.

Two road maintenance workers were killed when a tree fell on their car in the western state of Rhineland-Palatinate as a result of the storm, police said.

The strong winds disrupted train service in parts of Germany and cut electricity to thousands of homes.

 In Austria, a 63-year-old man died as he tried to fix his roof, while a nine-year-old girl was injured by a falling tree.

In Switzerland, several mountain railways cancelled trains, including the Matterhorn-Gotthard line between Andermatt in the canton of Uri and Disentis in the canton of Graubünden, ATS said.

The storm forced the closure of the cog railway to Mount Pilatus near Lucerne and various mountain cable cars.

Winds gusting up to 165 km/h were recorded at Crap Masegn in the canton of Graubünden.

Weather experts clocked winds at more than 105 km/h in Zurich.

A massive slab of copper from the roof a church in the city dislodged and fell, damaging three cars and the balcony of a nearby apartment building.

In Flawil in the canton of Saint Gallen the storm carried away part of the roof of a building storing chocolate.

Heavy rain following the strong winds struck the Jura region, causing flooding in villages in the cantons of Neuchâtel and Bern.

Niklas followed on the heels of another storm, Mike, which dumped a record amount of rain on areas of the Jura, MeteoNews said in a news release.
 

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WEATHER

IN PICTURES: ‘Exceptional’ Sahara dust cloud hits Europe

An "exceptional" dust cloud from the Sahara is choking parts of Europe, the continent's climate monitor said on Monday, causing poor air quality and coating windows and cars in grime.

Published: 8 April 2024 14:15 CEST
IN PICTURES: 'Exceptional' Sahara dust cloud hits Europe

Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service said the latest plume, the third of its kind in recent weeks, was bringing hazy conditions to southern Europe and would sweep northward as far as Scandinavia.

Mark Parrington, senior scientist at Copernicus, said the latest event was related to a weather pattern that has brought warmer weather to parts of Europe in recent days.

“While it is not unusual for Saharan dust plumes to reach Europe, there has been an increase in the intensity and frequency of such episodes in recent years, which could be potentially attributed to changes in atmospheric circulation patterns,” he said.

This latest episode has caused air quality to deteriorate in several countries, Copernicus said.

The European Union’s safe threshold for concentrations of PM10 — coarser particles like sand and dust that that can irritate the nose and throat — has already been exceeded in some locations.

A picture taken on April 8, 2024 shows a rapeseed field under thick sand dust blown in from the Sahara, giving the sky a yellowish appearance near Daillens, western Switzerland. – An “exceptional” dust cloud from the Sahara is choking parts of Europe, the continent’s climate monitor said, causing poor air quality and coating windows and cars in grime. (Photo by Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP)

The worst affected was the Iberian Peninsula in Spain but lesser air pollution spikes were also recorded in parts of Switzerland, France and Germany.

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Local authorities in southeastern and southern France announced that the air pollution threshold was breached on Saturday.

They advised residents to avoid intense physical activity, particularly those with heart or respiratory problems.

The dust outbreak was expected to reach Sweden, Finland and northwest Russia before ending on Tuesday with a shift in weather patterns, Copernicus said.

The Sahara emits between 60 and 200 million tonnes of fine dust every year, which can travel thousands of kilometres (miles), carried by winds and certain meteorological conditions.

The Spanish Canary Islands off the coast of northwest Africa saw just 12 days within a 90-day period from December to February where skies were free of Saharan dust, the local weather agency Aemet had reported.

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