Storm Axel
| Hurricane Axel | |
|---|---|
| Winter storm | Hurricane storm |
| Data | |
| Beginning | January 3, 2017 |
| The End | 4th January 2017 |
| Top gust (flat land) |
135 km / h ( Romo , 01/04/2017 ) |
| Peak gust (mountain country) |
165 km / h ( Feuerkogel) |
| minimum air pressure | 975 hPa ( Gotland) |
| largest flood over mean water | 183 cm ( Wismar , 01.04.2017 ) |
| consequences | |
| affected areas | Northern Germany , Denmark , Norway , Sweden , Poland |
Map with all linked sites: Hurricane Axel was a hurricane-like storm that hit northern Europe in early January 2017. Axel caused storm surges on the coasts of Denmark and the German Baltic Sea coast as well as snowfall inland. The combination of the bathtub effect and wind from the north caused the strongest storm flood on the German Baltic Sea coast since the November flood triggered by Hurricane Britta in 2006.
meteorology
| place | km / h |
|---|---|
| Feuerkogel (A) | 165.0 |
| Rømø (DK) | 135.0 |
| Vienna anniversary waiting room (A) | 131.0 |
| Buchberg (A) | 130.0 |
| Tyboron (DK) | 126.7 |
| Chunks (D) | 125.3 |
| List / Sylt (D) | 125.3 |
| Jauerling (A) | 119.5 |
| Norderney (D) | 108.7 |
| Greifswalder Ole (D) | 106.2 |
| Cuxhaven (D) | 105.5 |
| Heligoland (D) | 104.8 |
| Vienna-Hohe Warte (A) | 104.5 |
| Rostock-Warnemünde (D) | 102.6 |
| Bremerhaven (D) | 100.8 |
| Fehmarn (D) | 100.8 |
| Sources: DWD, DMI, ZMAG | |
A high pressure area stretched from France across the British Isles towards Greenland when, on January 3, 2017, a low north of Iceland shifted to Scandinavia and deepened in the process. To the west of Norway, Axel's development was initially complete and the low began to dissolve, but his frontal system collided with the mountains of Norway, on the east side of which a so-called "Lee Cyclogenesis " occurred. Meanwhile, the warm front snaked south around the mountains and was accepted by the new low pressure core as its own warm front. Axel's center was in the morning of January 3rd with a central air pressure of 980 hPa over central Norway. The storm shifted south-east and lay over Gotland on the morning of January 4th . This low then moved further towards the southern Baltic states and Belarus , where it lost strength. The influence of a high over the eastern Atlantic, which in the meantime extended over England to southern Norway, led to the weather calming down.
On the afternoon of January 3rd, Axel's relocation over western Scandinavia, the North Sea and Germany led to an increase in winds of up to 11 bft. The wind reached its peak on the night of January 4th. The cold front moved quickly southward over Germany, the pressure gradient increased in the south, and so the storm reached gusts of 7–8 bft in the flatlands and 8–12 bft in the mountains and along the coasts. Axel initially carried mild, moist, warm air from the north-west to Germany, so that rain fell in northern Germany, which turned into snow in the eastern low mountain ranges in locations over 200 to 400 m and in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg deep down in snow. Although the snow line in the west initially rose to 400 to 600 above sea level, it fell again in the second half of the day on January 4th. By evening, 7–13 cm fell in the Rhön , 7–20 cm in the Thuringian Forest , 7–16 cm in the Harz , 7–25 cm in the Ore Mountains and 2–8 cm in the Fichtel Mountains and the Bavarian Forest (in higher altitudes up to 20 cm) fresh snow. However, the snow was blown locally, which made it difficult to determine the height. On January 5th, the precipitation reached the south and brought up to 20 cm of fresh snow in lower areas and up to 30 cm in middle and higher areas. In the Black Forest , 5–25 cm of fresh snow fell in middle and higher altitudes and another 2–15 cm of fresh snow fell in the stagnant areas of the Thuringian Forest and the Ore Mountains.
Effects
Denmark
The highest deviation from normal water level with 177 cm above normal was measured on January 5th in Aabenraa. It was an event with a centenary return.
Germany
| place | Day | Time | Dev. MW |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flensburg | January 5th | 12:48 am | 179 cm |
| Kiel | January 5th | 01:08 am | 169 cm |
| Heiligenhafen | January 5th | 12:46 am | 162 cm |
| Travemünde | January 4th | 9:34 pm | 174 cm |
| Lübeck | January 4th | 10:39 pm | 179 cm |
| Wismar | January 4th | 9:19 pm | 183 cm |
| Warnemünde | January 4th | 8:24 pm | 160 cm |
| Sassnitz | January 4th | 7:57 pm | 139 cm |
| Greifswald | January 4th | 11:05 pm | 165 cm |
| Koserow | January 4th | 10:06 p.m. | 155 cm |
On the German North Sea coast , the greatest effects were recorded in the night of January 3rd to 4th, 2017 and on the Baltic Sea coast in the night of January 4th to 5th, 2017 with gale-force gusts of around 110 km / h. The BSH issued a storm surge warning for the entire Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania coast.
The Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH) predicted the afternoon floods on the German North Sea coast and in Emden as well as the evening floods in Bremen and Hamburg about half a meter higher than the mean flood for January 3rd.
In the Baltic Sea there was already a higher filling level than usual before Axel, because fresh to strong westerly winds the week before pushed water through the Skagerrak into the Baltic Sea or the current from the Baltic Sea was weaker due to the headwind. On January 3rd, strong westerly winds ensured that the water levels on the German Baltic Sea coast fell by up to half a meter, so that the water level in the Bay of Kiel was lower than the mean water and between Warnemünde and Greifswald at the level of the mean water. In Koserow the water level fell to about 20 centimeters above mean water because the initial value was higher there.
Due to the strong north winds initially forecast in the central Baltic Sea in connection with the high level of the inland sea, the Federal Shipping and Hydrographic Agency (BSH) warned of a storm surge with peak heights between 1.2 and 1.5 m on the morning of January 3 Mean water. On the morning of January 4, these forecasts were corrected to 1.3 to 1.6 m above mean water level. The highest water level was expected around midnight on January 5th. But during the day the water level rose faster than had been assumed.
According to the weather forecast, the wind change from north to northeast pushed water from the central Baltic Sea to the western Baltic Sea. By exceeding one meter above mean water, this flood wave reached the level in Koserow at 1:32 p.m., Wismar at 4:25 p.m. and the level in Flensburg at 6:24 p.m. Locally, the storm surge was stronger than forecast due to the effects of damming in bays and fjords as well as local wind peaks. At the gauges in the area of the German Baltic Sea coast, it reached its highest value in Wismar with 183 cm, followed by Lübeck and Flensburg with 179 cm and Travemünde with 174 cm, both above mean water.
The storm surge generated by storm Axel in the Baltic Sea was consistently over 1.5 m high and was a severe storm surge with an annuality of 15 to 20 years, and the height of the storm surge was at the level of the storm surges of November 2006 (Hurricane Britta) and from February 2002.
Dikes were badly damaged in many places. The steep banks broke off. In Lübeck a high of 1.79 m above the mean flood was measured and the street An der Obertrave was flooded.
There was heavy snowfall in southern Germany; Snow and black ice led to numerous traffic accidents.
Austria
In Austria, the storm affected the Danube region. Snowfalls led to disabilities and accidents , especially in the Mühlviertel and on the northern edge of the Alps .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Lefebvre / Haesel: Storm depression Axel resolves on 3rd / 4th January 2017 hurricane damage and a storm surge . German Weather Service. February 11, 2017. Retrieved August 5, 2017.
- ↑ a b c Lars Kirchhübel: storm "Axel" whipped rain and snow over the country, bringing bitter cold! . In: Topic of the day . German Weather Service. January 5, 2017. Retrieved January 21, 2018.
- ↑ Snow and storm "Axel" reaches Germany, Austria and Switzerland . In: Euronews , January 5, 2017.
- ↑ Lübecker Nachrichten, Lübeck, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany: Hamburg / Kiel - Storm low "Axel" brings hurricane-like gusts in the north - LN - Lübecker Nachrichten. (No longer available online.) In: Lübecker Nachrichten. Archived from the original on January 5, 2017 ; Retrieved January 5, 2017 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ a b c d Storm surge from January 4th / 5th, 2017 (PDF, 817 kB) Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency. Archived from the original on January 16, 2018. Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved January 16, 2018.
- ↑ Hundreds of traffic accidents - weather service warns of winter thunderstorms . In: Spiegel Online . Retrieved January 16, 2018.
- ↑ Winterorkan sweeps over Vienna at up to 131 km / h. In: Kronenzeitung online, January 4, 2017.
