Exceptional severe thunderstorms with large hailstones in June 2019

In the period from 10 to 12 June 2019, several severe thunderstorms associated with hail, heavy precipitation and severe wind gusts caused considerable damage to buildings, vehicles, infrastructure and agriculture in south-eastern and eastern Germany. On Pentecost Monday, 10 June, large hail with a diameter of up to 6 cm affected many suburbs of Munich and the districts of Freising, Dachau, Landsberg/Lech, Ammersee, Wörthsee and Kaufbeuren. Numerous trees fell by gusts up to 120 km/h, railway traffic was severely restricted, and delays and flight cancellations also occurred at Munich Airport.

Over the next two days, numerous thunderstorms developed, especially in eastern Germany, some of which were accompanied by heavy rain and hail. Among other things, these caused severe disruptions in the metropolitan area of Berlin. On June 11, the Berlin-Buch station reported a total rainfall of 46.2 mm in one hour, with Ueckermünde in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania reporting heavy gusts of up to 89 km/h a little further northeast. On 12 June, a tornado was observed in Tauscha, Saxony, 20 km north of Dresden, which caused considerable damage to 30 to 40 houses.

The Gesamtverband der Deutschen Versicherungswirtschaft (GDV) estimated the loss amount for the three days one week after the event at 650 million euros. Although the losses did not reach the magnitude of the famous Munich hailstorm in 1984 or the storm episode in July 2013 with severe hail damage at Reutlingen and Wolfsburg, the event is still one of the ten hailstorms with the highest losses in the last 20 years.

In a new Forensic Disaster Analysis short report, the Center for Disaster Management and Risk Reduction Technology (CEDIM), an interdisciplinary research institute at KIT in the field of natural disasters and disaster management, in cooperation with hail researchers at IMK-TRO published first analyses of the event:

https://www.cedim.kit.edu/english/2933.php

or direct link:

https://www.cedim.kit.edu/download/FDA_Hagel_2019_report1.pdf (In German)

Figure 1: Hail in Bavaria on 10 June 2019 (Photo: Marco Kaschuba).

Figure 2: Spatial distribution of ESWD reports from 10 to 12 June 2019 on hail (▲), heavy rain (●), convective wind gusts (■) and tornado events (★) in Germany; the colors reflect the day of the events.

Figure 3: Thunderstorm and hail streaks on 10 June (in Bavaria) with contours of 55 dBZ radar reflectivity (isolines) and ESWD reports (color; left), overshooting top (OT) detections based on MSG satellite data (middle) and hail streak (blue contour) with underlying value concentrations (chapter stock reference 2016; right).

[Working Group: Atmospheric Risks]
Autor: Susanna Mohr
25.07.2019