Arrival Of Storm Niklas Berlin, March 31 2015, Video
Tuesday, March 31, Germany and Middle Europe faced one of the strongest storms since years. The strength of the storm was unusual for the season. Some storms in late winter and early spring are normal but Niklas, which followed another storm in Germany, was very large, very strong and moved slowly. It did a lot of damage in Germany, eleven people were killed, trees felt onto cars and railways were stopped. In Berlin the “Fernsehturm”, the largest building in the city (over 370 metres) had to be closed. Visitors had to use the emergency stairs which is an exhausting way to get down. Trees felt on railway tracks and in a train not far from the street where this little video was taken passengers were trapped for six hours. Many flights were cancelled. In Munich the main hall of the main station had to be evacuated.
That day there were amazing weather patterns: After a noisy night when the previous storm shattered the windows, in the morning a little sheet of snow greeted commuters. The snow melted quickly and around noon it was unnaturally warm. It was windy in the morning and then it calmed down for some hours. It was literally “the calm before the storm”. In the afternoon the wind become stronger and stronger but then there were suddenly real strong wind gusts. The moment the video was taken the first strong winds of Niklas hit the town.
In the street no big trees were felt but in other places Niklas did a lot of damage. Nevertheless Berlin was lucky compared to other places and due to the fact that during the hours before the storm hit not much rain felt.
Even no big branches came down in the moment the video was taken it shows why storms can be dangerous. Forests are particularly a dangerous place not only during a storm but also in the days following the storm because there is still a chance big trees or branches could come down.
The storm lasted for hours til the late evening hours. Only in the night it slowly ceased down. The Berlin Fire Brigade had an endless number of emergency calls and also Brandenburg experienced many damage done by the storm.
