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WEATHER

Twisters, lightning and giant hail in Danish summer storm

Large parts of Denmark were hit by violent storms Tuesday evening, with downpours across the country, gale force winds, hail and thousands of lightning bolts.

Twisters, lightning and giant hail in Danish summer storm
Photo: Michael Drost-Hansen/Scanpix
 

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In West Jutland, the old cliché of lightning never striking twice in the same place was defied as houses on the same street were hit by no fewer than four different lightning strikes.

Two houses on the Torsbækvej street, between the villages of Søndre Felding and Hoven, caught fire after lightning struck four times.

Duty officer Carsten Henriksen of Mid and West Jutland police told local news media TV Midtvest that the repeated lightning strikes were a rare occurrence.

“Nobody is in danger, but the fire has spread to the roof of one of the houses,” Henriksen said.

The Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI), which issued a warning during the storms, posted later on Tuesday a map of all the locations of recorded lightning strikes across Denmark.

 

The storm moved west across the country during the course of the afternoon, bringing with it gale force winds, and hailstones up to 3.5mm in diameter- the largest of their kind recorded in Denmark in two years, according to a report by TV2.

 

#sommertordenvejr #danskvejr #dansksommer #hygge #thunder #summerrain #nofilter

A post shared by Gunvor Engsig-Karup (@gunvorengsigkarup) on Jun 6, 2017 at 11:24am PDT

Meanwhile, a driver in south Jutland recorded a tornado from his car – also an extremely rare sight in Denmark.

Tornadoes only form in Denmark during heavy storms and are different from the much more powerful versions seen in the United States.

The video, which was posted to TV2 Weather’s Facebook page, shows the Danish twister dissipating in a field near the car.

Tornado ved bedsted. Desværre under opløsning da optagelsen blev startet. Stor og flot søjle 20 sekunder før, da den krydsede vejen. 50-100m bred.

Posted by Rasmus Albertsen on Tuesday, 6 June 2017

“There was a beautiful column 20 seconds before [the recording starts], as it passed across the road,” wrote Rasmus Albertsen, who posted the video.

Wednesday’s weather is expected to be rainy and windy, possibly with localised thunder, according to a forecast on DMI's website. 

READ ALSO: Autumnal weather to Denmark for start of June

WEATHER

Denmark records deepest snow level for 13 years

Blizzards in Denmark this week have resulted in the greatest depth of snow measured in the country for 13 years.

Denmark records deepest snow level for 13 years

A half-metre of snow, measured at Hald near East Jutland town Randers, is the deepest to have occurred in Denmark since January 2011, national meteorological agency DMI said.

The measurement was taken by the weather agency at 8am on Thursday.

Around 20-30 centimetres of snow was on the ground across most of northern and eastern Jutland by Thursday, as blizzards peaked resulting in significant disruptions to traffic and transport.

A much greater volume of snow fell in 2011, however, when over 100 centimetres fell on Baltic Sea island Bornholm during a post-Christmas blizzard, which saw as much as 135 centimetres on Bornholm at the end of December 2010.

READ ALSO: Denmark’s January storms could be fourth extreme weather event in three months

With snowfall at its heaviest for over a decade, Wednesday saw a new rainfall record. The 59 millimetres which fell at Svendborg on the island of Funen was the most for a January day in Denmark since 1886. Some 9 weather stations across Funen and Bornholm measured over 50cm of rain.

DMI said that the severe weather now looks to have peaked.

“We do not expect any more weather records to be set in the next 24 hours. But we are looking at some very cold upcoming days,” DMI meteorologist and press spokesperson Herdis Damberg told news wire Ritzau.

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