Every place you travel to has specific natural hazards you can encounter during your visit. Some places on earth are safer than others and some natural hazards can really be a pain as they occur often. Here you will find out what to expect in Munich and southern Bavaria and what to do if you’re affected during your stay. But don’t worry. Munich and southern Bavaria are very safe regions concerning natural hazards like floodings, thunderstorms, and severe downpours.
Storms and severe winds
In Germany can encounter storms with wind speeds up to 64 knots (12 bft, 120 km/h, 75 mph). Fortunately, severe storms only occur every 5-10 years. The last severe storms that hit southern Germany were in 1990 (storms „Vivian“ and „Wiebke“), 1999 (storms „Lothar“ and „Martin“), 2007 (storm „Kyrill“), 2015 (storm „Niklas“), and 2020 (storm „Sabine“)
Different storm-names
Like Hurricanes, the European windstorms get names. The European windstorms usually appear during late winter (January – April) or autumn (September-November). An interesting fact is, that the different European weather services name the same storms differently. So if you travel across Europe and you watch the media in different countries while there is a storm going on, you’ll notice that the name changes from country to country. For example, the 1999 December storm was called „Anatol“ in German-speaking countries, but got the name „Adam“ in Denmark, „Carola“ in Sweden, and „December hurricane“ in Great Britain.
In contrast to Hurricanes in the USA, European windstorms (German: „Orkan“) usually appear without rain or thunderstorms. It is actually just extremely windy. Sometimes there can even be a clear sky. Usually, these storms last for one to four days and therefore not that long.
What to do?
Fortunately, severe European windstorms are rare, but there can still be mediocre storms that affect for example air or rail traffic.
There is actually not much you can do as a tourist when it’s stormy. Try to check the local media before traveling. If possible, try to rebook your flight to another destination near Munich like Milan or Zurich and take the train from there (if these airports are not affected).
When you’re about to travel to Munich or Bavaria or more destinations in Germany and Europe and you’re unsure about severe weather, get as much information as possible.
But how to get detailed information about the weather situation, when you’re not able to speak or read German? Just follow these few steps:
- Check Meteoalarm.eu. Meteoalarm is a website run by EUMETNET, a network grouping the different European National Meteorological Services – https://www.meteoalarm.eu/
- Check the official German Meteorological Service (DWD) website for severe weather warnings: https://www.dwd.de/EN/
- If you’re a weather geek and need some in-depth analysis of European severe weather, navigate to severe-weather.eu, where you can find lots of articles about ongoing and coming weather phenomenons.
