Mammatus Clouds, Sankt Peter Ording, March 28, 2016

The extraordinary weather patterns in “Nordfriesland” – the flat landscape situated at the Northern Sea close to Denmark – inspired artists, writers and painters. ” Der Schimmelreiter”, a famous drama and ghost story by Theodor Storm, is set against the backdrop of the wilderness of the Northern Sea with its murderous storm floods. The amazing colours and moods of the clouds created the magic scenery which painter Emil Nolde often portrayed in his paintings.

Particularly in autumn and in spring there are spectacular moments at the Northern Sea shore. Sankt Peter Ording, a touristic village, is like the island of Sylt an outpost at the Northern Sea where you often can find great motives for photography. There is an endless shore and the tides create a constantly changing impression.

On March 28, 2016 showers moved from the West to the East. In the evening light with the last beams of sunlight the showers fell apart but mammatus clouds appeared which were illuminated by the sun.

These clouds are still a mystery for science til today. They are often seen in thunderstorms but could also appear on the underside of other types of clouds.

Mammatus Clouds are sometimes also mentioned as “bubble clouds”. What’s amazing is the detailed structure in the shower or thunder clouds, which is also visible in the picture.

I have seen mammatus clouds often after a thunderstorm or a shower passed. They mean certainly that there must be turbulences in the clouds but there is no connection between tornados and mammatus clouds.

In Sankt Peter Ording, which is a long stretched village consisting of three parts, there is a long pier. The pier leads to the shore. From the pier there are great views of the salt marshes, which are unique. Sometime they get flooded but most of the time its a place for birds and other animals.

During summer a lot of visitors come and the shore might be crowded. However there is a lot of space here to take long walks and find motives.

Unexperienced visitors should be aware of the tides which could pose some danger particularly when there is some mist and you couldn’t see the houses any longer.

The village is protected by a huge dyke since devastating storm floods posed a constant danger over centuries.  There are also two light houses.

Sankt Peter Ording can be reached via train or by car. It’s a 5-6 hour ride from Berlin or 2 hours from Hamburg. There is also a bus commuting between the different parts of the shore and the village. In the old part of the village there is a bus station directly at the sea.

Strange Looking Skies: June 2 and May 2015

May 2015. In Northern Germany (Bützow) and in Southern Germany (Augsburg) there were two remarkable tornado events within a week and followed by more. Three tornados created a lot of damage and shocked people living in the track of the tornado.

On the North-side of the Alps in Bavaria there was a lot of rain, it rained also in Northern Germany.

In the middle of the country a drought raised concerns among farmers.

In the Berlin area there weren’t extreme weather patterns but the whole month felt more like autumn rather than spring.

It was cold most of the time and a feeling that the weather pattern repeated itself each day, with a few hours of sun and clouds and wind most of the time. Particularly at night it was still very cold.

There were also interesting cloud patterns in the sky, which looked a bit unusual. It might be these types of clouds which triggered also the “Chem-trails” conspiracy theory. These here certainly are natural phenomena, nevertheless it would be worth to learn more about these types of clouds. The sky looking like a “dirty window” happens more often over the last years and it would be good to know what that means.

Indeed it looks like the atmosphere is surfeited from something. This can be natural but there are still a lot of factors in the Earth’s atmosphere which needs further investigation and explanation. For example bacteria play a role in the development of clouds (and perhaps are also a factor in climate-development).

It’s remarkable that these type of clouds are not often to be seen on older photos – however we should keep in mind that today there’s much more awareness about weather phenomena and nearly anyone has a camera in his mobile.

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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.