Cyclone Lilly was a low-pressure area that evolved into an unusually violent European windstorm,
Kyrill caused widespread damage across Western Europe, especially in the United Kingdom and Germany. 47 fatalities were reported, as well as extensive disruptions of public transport, power outages to over one hundred thousand homes, severe damage to public and private buildings and major forest damage through windthrow. 20 tornadoes were reported, the strongest of which were two Fujita scale tornadoes which impacted the towns of Lauchhammer and Wittenberg in eastern Germany on 18 January.
The storm was named "Kyrill" on 17 January 2007, by the Free University of Berlin's meteorological institute.
Abstract
A European windstorm is a severe
cyclonic storm that moves across the North Atlantic towards north-western Europe in the winter months. These storms usually move over the north coast of the United Kingdom, towards
Norway but can veer south to affect other countries including Ireland, France,
Belgium, the
Netherlands,
Denmark,
Sweden,
Austria, Germany, the
Czech Republic,
Slovakia,
Slovenia,
Switzerland, and
Poland. As these storms can generate hurricane-force winds (and sometimes even winds at the strength of major hurricanes), they are sometimes referred to as
, even though few originate as
.
These storms rank as the second highest cause of global natural disaster insurance loss (after US hurricanes).
Kyrill was unusual in that its field of hurricane-force winds was very broad, affecting large areas of Germany as well as neighbouring countries at one time. Kyrill brought wind gusts of up to even in the North German plains. German weather experts have described the storm as a "once in a decade" event.
Events
After making landfall in Ireland and the UK in the late hours of 17 January 2007, the storm swept across Ireland and Great Britain on the night of 17 to 18 January, with winds of at
The Needles, recorded in
Dublin, recorded at
Aberdaron on the
Lleyn peninsula, at
Mumbles near
Swansea and winds of at
St Athan in the Vale of Glamorgan.
The German Meteorological Service had advised people to stay indoors and avoid unnecessary trips on 18 January,
and wind strengths of up to 12 on the
Beaufort scale were seen across the Netherlands and Germany as the storm made landfall. The storm moved across the German states of
Lower Saxony, Bremen, Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein and North Rhine-Westphalia first, then spread across the whole country in the evening hours of 18 January. Wind gusts as high as on the Wendelstein and on the
Brocken in the
Harz mountains were recorded.
The storm then moved eastwards, its center crossing Lower Saxony between 18:00 and 19:00 CET, moving toward the
Baltic Sea, its cold front spawning several
in Germany.
In Poland the highest wind speed was measured on Sněžka in the
Karkonosze mountains, where wind gusts reached .
In the
Czech Republic winds as high as disrupted both rail and air traffic; record high temperatures reached in
Prague.
The UK Met office in a case study stated that Kyrill would have generated a red warning on the colour scale they adopted in 2008.
The storm was classified Hurricane-force 12 on the
Beaufort Scale. This is the highest classification on the modern scale.
Impact
On the day of the landfall, an approximate 25,000 homes in southern England were without electricity after electricity pylons were damaged by the storm.
Same day, the German states of
Brandenburg, Saxony and
Saxony-Anhalt were hit by a massive power cut. 52,000 homes were without energy, according to local utility
envia.
The German district Siegen-Wittgenstein had issued a state of emergency, with schools remaining closed on Friday, 19 January, and roads not to be cleared right away, but closed instead until the situation improved.
By the second day of the storm, more than one million homes were left without power in the
Czech Republic with another million households without electricity in Germany and tens of thousands dark homes in
Austria and
Poland.
In Poland, a flood alarm was issued in several localities due to large rainfalls and the storm damaged several houses in the region of Jelenia Góra.
In
Ukraine, the supply of oil through the
Druzhba pipeline came to a complete halt as a result of the storm.
[ ]
Strong winds over the Alps became
foehn wind and caused unusually high temperatures in Italy (up to in
Turin).
[ History for Torino, Italy . Weather Underground. 19 January 2007. Last accessed 2007-01-22.]
In Ireland thousands of homes were left without power and heavy downpours caused flash flooding.
In the Netherlands, the storm flood warning system ( Stormvloedwaarschuwingsdienst) was activated, as the approaching storm was measured in excess of 10 Beaufort scale. Alarms were issued to two northern regions, Delfzijl and Harlingen, at approximately 22:30 CET on Thursday 18 January. The water level peaked in the early hours of Friday, almost above the astronomical prediction level.
High winds in the Alps prompted the Austrian weather service to advise the skiers and snowboarders to seek shelter, and caused at least one major motorway tunnel closure.
The cost of the damage across Europe to the insurance industry has been estimated by Swiss Re as €3.5bn.
Notable buildings
Several windows were broken at the Römisch-Germanisches Museum in
Cologne, Germany by
plywood that was covering a
fountain near Cologne Cathedral. The wood caused major damage to the encasing of a
Roman Empire mosaic dating to the 3rd century. The Römisch-Germanisches Museum building was originally constructed around the mosaic. As of January 2007, it was still unclear whether the mosaic had suffered damage, as museum staff had announced the clean-up would at least take a week due to the fragility of the exhibit.
Museum manager Bernhard Ostermann had estimated that the mosaic was damaged in 100 to 150 places.
The chapel of Wittenberg Castle in Wittenberg, Germany, which is a World Heritage Site, lost several of its sandstone . They broke off during the storm, damaging several stained-glass windows in their fall.
Harbours and shipping
The
container ship MSC Napoli, whilst on its way to
Portugal carrying 2,394 containers, of which 158 were classed as hazardous substances, had to be abandoned in the
English Channel on the 18th. The crew of 26 were picked up by British and French rescue services. The next day the Napoli was under tow for repair at
Portland Harbour in Dorset, but with forecasts of further high winds it was taken to shelter in
Lyme Bay. The ship had suffered structural damage, including a hole on the
starboard side and water flooding and had to be beached in the bay off the
East Devon coast at
Branscombe The ship leaked oil, sparking a clean-up operation, and widespread reporting in the national news led to the wreck temporarily becoming a tourist attraction and subject to scavenging from the containers which washed up on the beach.
The wreck was subject to a complex break-up operation which was not complete until July 2009.
The ferry services between Fishguard and Rosslare were cancelled,
The Cypriot-flagged freighter Golden Sky, carrying a load of fertiliser and fuel oil, ran aground near Ventspils, off the coast of Latvia; the ship's crew were rescued in a joint Latvian and Swedish operation.
Road transport
Many countries suffered from road and motorway closures. In the United Kingdom, the major motorways M1, M6 and M18 were closed in several places, as well as the M25 ring road around London and a number of other motorways. Bridges including the M6
Thelwall Viaduct in
Warrington, the M25 Dartford Crossing in London and the M1
Tinsley Viaduct in
Sheffield were closed due to high winds. All
Pennines were closed. Closures were largely due to the toppling of multiple high-sided vehicles. Other motorways were affected by significant delays. Long queues developed around blackspots, in particular replacement crossings of the Manchester Ship Canal including routes through
Warrington and over the Runcorn Bridge.
In Germany, a number of motorways, especially those with bridges over the
Rhine or those with
valley bridges, also faced closures due to high winds.
The Dutch police advised drivers of empty
lorry not to enter the Netherlands. Many roads were also closed in Ireland due to fallen trees and overturned lorries.
Air transport
More than 280 flights were cancelled at
Heathrow Airport, over 120 flights were cancelled at Doncaster Sheffield Airport and 80 more flights were cancelled due to health and safety reasons at Manchester Airport.
Many flights were delayed at Ireland's airports on the morning of 19 January due to the high winds in Ireland, however by afternoon they were delayed because of high winds elsewhere in Europe.
Several flights at Frankfurt Airport were cancelled due to the bad weather.
Overall, during 18 and 19 January Swiss International Air Lines announced the cancellation of at least 88 flights,
British Airways cancelled 180 flights and
Lufthansa cut 329 flights and warned of more delays before the service began to return to normal.
Railways
The storm seriously affected the 18 January
rush hour all over Great Britain, with heavy snowfalls in
Scotland adding to the unpleasant situation. A general speed restriction was put in place by
Network Rail to minimise possible damages. First Great Western services between London Paddington and Cardiff were cancelled with the line from London to Reading closed, and the East Coast Main Line was operating on a reduced timetable. Virgin Trains West Coast services were cancelled from London to Scotland. London Bridge station was closed after glass panels came loose from the roof.
In the Netherlands, all train services ceased operating on the evening of 18 January. The station in Delft and the central station in Amsterdam were evacuated due to roof damages.
German railway operator italic=no at first limited the maximum speed of its trains to ,
Berlin Hauptbahnhof
Late on 18 January, the central railway station in Berlin suffered from major structural damage. A two-ton girder fell from a height of , damaging an outside stairwell. The station was completely evacuated, as glass plates from the façade were coming loose and falling to the pavement below.
On the early afternoon of 19 January, the station was opened to the public again.
Discussion started as to whether the eight-month-old station was suffering from design failures, but these claims were rejected by both Deutsche Bahn and the architect. The girders provide no means of structural support and are, for architectural reasons, only lying on small supports similar to a shelf and not permanently fixed in place. The DB claimed that it will address the problem by welding additional supports in front of the girders, and that they would close the station at winds exceeding 8
Beaufort scale (> ) until the problem was resolved. On the afternoon of 21 January 2007, the station was closed again to the public due to heavy winds at the time.
and remained closed until 20:00 CET.
Storm Worm
One of the quickest spreading computer worms of all time appears to have been named for this event. The
Storm Worm causes massive amounts of spam to appear on a user's computer. Some of the emails that appear reference Kyrill in them.
Casualties and fatalities
According to the
BBC News, at least 43 people were killed by the evening of 19 January.
The casualties were distributed as follows:
Western Europe
United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom the storm caused thirteen
deaths:
-
The first casualty of the storm was the managing director of Birmingham Airport, who was killed around 05:45 GMT when his car collided with a tree uprooted by high winds in Shropshire; a branch penetrated the windscreen and impaled him.
-
In the London district of Kentish Town, a two-year-old boy died in hospital after receiving severe head injuries when a wall fell on him while he was walking with his childminder in the afternoon of 18 January.
-
A female lorry driver was killed on the A629 in Yorkshire when her lorry overturned and was blown into a canal.
-
A male lorry driver, who was a German national, was killed on the A55 near Chester when his lorry overturned.
-
The front-seat male passenger of a car on the A329 was killed when a branch hit the car near Streatley, Berkshire; the driver was injured.
-
A man was blown into metal Window shutter at an industrial estate in Manchester and died.
-
In Byley, Cheshire, a man was hit by a tree while working on a construction site.
-
An elderly man was killed in North Lincolnshire by a collapsing shed.
-
A woman in Stockport was killed when a wall she tried to shelter behind fell onto her.
-
In Lancashire, a man was hit by a falling canopy at a petrol station whilst refuelling and later died in hospital.
-
In Woofferton, Shropshire, a lorry driver collided with another vehicle and died on the scene.
Netherlands
Seven people in the
Netherlands were killed as a result of the weather.
-
Two people died when a falling tree hit their car between Arnhem and Ede.
-
A man near Oosterhout was killed in a collision with a truck.
-
A motorcyclist died near Leersum after a collision with a tree, as well as a 17-year-old boy on a moped in Sint Oedenrode.
-
An 11-year-old boy in Riel was blown in front of a car, which drove over him. The boy died on the scene.
-
A 59-year-old man in Staphorst was blown off of the roof of his barn, as he was repairing the damage caused by the storm.
-
Six people were injured when a crane fell through the roof of a Utrecht University building.
France
In France, a driving instructor in
Roubaix was killed when an electricity pole fell on top of her car. The student was severely injured. A 30-year-old man died near
Abbeville, when a swerving truck crashed into his car. A woman in
Lille was reported missing after the roof of a store collapsed.
There was significant damage to the cathedral at
Saint-Omer.
Belgium
Three people in
Belgium fell victim to the storm; a 16-year-old girl in Halle died when a wall she was standing by collapsed and a man died in the province of Liège after a tree fell on top of his car.
In Antwerp a 12-year-old boy was hit and seriously injured by a falling beam, and later died of his injuries.
Central Europe
Germany
Germany was the country most severely hit by the storm, with 13 casualties as of 21 January 2007. Most deaths occurred on 18 and 19 January, though some victims were only injured at first and later died in hospital.
-
In the Munich borough of Milbertshofen, an 18-month-old child was severely injured by a patio door that had broken out of its hinges. The child later died in hospital.
-
Near Kirrlach in the state of Baden-Württemberg, a motorist tried to avoid a tree that had fallen onto the road and crashed into an oncoming vehicle. He was pronounced dead on the scene.
-
A 73-year-old man was crushed by a barn door in Gersthofen in the district of Augsburg.
-
A Firefighter was killed in Tönisvorst in North Rhine-Westphalia while cleaning up after the storm.
-
A 36-year-old motorist was killed in Hildesheim by a fallen tree.
-
A motorcycle driver slid under a tree in Essen, dying in hospital on 21 January.
-
On the "Wiedenbrücker Straße" in Lippstadt, a 23-year-old woman was killed when her car was hit by a falling birch tree.
-
A man was killed when a gable of a nearby building collapsed in Groß Rodensleben in the state of Saxony-Anhalt.
-
In Strausberg in Brandenburg, a 25-year-old man crashed into a fallen tree with his car.
-
Near Finnentrop, a man died after not noticing a tree that had fallen onto the road and crashing into it.
-
A man in Mülheim an der Ruhr was killed by a falling tree.
Poland
-
A crane operator was killed in Katowice when a crane broke in half.
-
electrical signs were torn off the hotel Wyspianski building in Kraków, causing widespread damage.
-
In Elblag between 17th and 19 January temperatures reached between , causing severe thunderstorm with heavy rain, winds up to 100 km/h and sub 1000-mbar pressure.
-
By 19 January a total of 6 casualties and 19 people wounded have been reported, nearly 800 thousand households lacked electricity due to the damage done by the storm, about 500 were damaged.
Czech Republic
-
A Firefighter died in Slunečná (Liberec Region) when the wind threw a tree trunk on him while he and his colleagues were clearing the road.
-
Two young men died in Vestec near Prague when a tree fell on their car.
Highest wind gust per country
Gallery
Image:Aa kyrill treedown wytpk.jpg|Windthrown tree in Wythenshawe Park, Manchester, England
Image:Aa kyrill treesdown 02007 01 28 2.jpg|Windthrown part of tree, Wythenshawe Park, Manchester, England
Image:Aa kyrill wytpk branchesoff.jpg|Branches broken off a tree in Wythenshawe Park, Manchester, England. Windthrown tree in background
Image:Aa kyrill treedown hale 2007 01 18.jpg|Windthrown tree after first-stage clearing up, Hale, Greater Manchester, England
Image:Lindenberg Windbruch.JPG|The forest on the Lindenberg mountain above Ilmenau, Germany was heavily damaged
File:Abies concolor lowiana roots.JPG|Abies concolor subsp. lowiana roots in Botanical Garden in Wrocław. This tree was overthrown by hurricane Kyrill at night on 18 January 2007. The age of this tree is ca. 65–70 years
File:Fichtenkultur.jpg|Young Picea abies ("Picea abies") marginal Windthrow twelve years after Kyrill / Vogelsberg, Germany
See also
-
Global storm activity of 2007
-
January 2007 North American Ice Storm
External links
