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STORM

Two dead in Austria as storm wrecks marquee

Two people were killed in Austria and 120 injured, 20 of them seriously, when an "extreme" storm wrecked a large marquee, police said on Saturday.

Published: 19 August 2017 14:58 CEST
Updated: 19 August 2017 17:10 CEST
Two dead in Austria as storm wrecks marquee
Photo: dleindecdp/Depositphotos
The accident happened late on Friday when around 650 people were celebrating inside the tent in Sankt Johann am Walde in the north of the country.
 
“(The) extreme storm tore away most of the tent,” a statement said. “The two people were killed by flying debris including the tent scaffolding.”
 
Those killed were a 19-year-old woman and a 28-year-old man, both from the local area.
 
Storms barrelling through Austria on Friday night caused widespread havoc elsewhere, temporarily cutting off power to 150,000 households with winds of up to 126 kilometres (78 miles) per hour.
 
Two people were hurt in Salzburg by falling pieces of scaffolding while elsewhere flying objects and falling trees caused numerous car accidents and blocked train lines.
 
In the historic central spa town of Bad Ischl, a circus tent was destroyed, giving a taste of freedom to a number of performing goats and ponies that briefly escaped.

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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