Germany braces for rare hurricane

CNN ^ | 1/18/07

[AZRepublican]

BERLIN, Germany (Reuters) -- Germans were told to stay indoors and many schools across the country closed early on Thursday as a rare hurricane bore down on the country, cutting air traffic at its biggest airport by half.

Germany's DWD meteorogical service said the storm "Kyrill" could generate winds of up to 180 km/h (112 mph) in high and exposed areas and as much as 130 km/h in lower-lying regions.

"What's unusual about this storm is that it will affect the whole country and not just certain zones," said Christoph Hartmann, a spokesman for the DWD in Offenbach.

The northwest of Germany would be the first to feel the full impact of Kyrill from early afternoon, before the storm swept across the rest of the country and moved eastwards into Poland, the Czech Republic and northern Austria, the DWD said.

[mkjessup]

And you just know that when the inevitable failure to provide adequate disaster relief happens, that Prime Minister Merkel will turn to her interior minister and say 'You're doing a heckuva job there, Braunie!'

(groan), sorry - it was impossible to resist.

Heh.

[CertainInalienableRights]

It has to be said: Bush's fault.

[spkpls4]

Feeling the winds in Belgium, today, too.

[nevergore]

Where's the looter guy? I heard he prefers Hieniken.....

[Schnucki]

130 km/h warning for Austria too.

[lowbuck]

Hi, thanks for your info. If you see some updates on what is happening in German (Berlin) could you please post them to the forum.

I'm in Brazil and the family is, I hope, taking shelter. This windstorm does not sound good at all.

[metmom]

Good to share the wealth.

Now maybe some of those European countries won't be so critical of the US in how we handle those things. Nothing like esperience to change your perspective.

[metmom]

esperience=experience

It's not 10 am yet. *sigh*

[metmom]

You know this is going to be blamed on global warming, so here's a heads up.

[neutrality]

It's not a hurricane

[don-o]

It has to be said: Bush's fault.

It really doesn't.

[Gamecock]

I think hurricane is a sloppy translation of the word orkan. An orkan can be translated as hurricane, but also winter gale/storm.

It's 50 degrees outside right now and the wind is just howling. Periods of rain, but not what we would associate with a good old fashioned hurricane.

[TexasRedeye]

Did someone say Hieniken?"

[Churchillspirit]

Strong winds in the UK since Saturday.

[Cap Huff]

There's a tremendous amount of wind and some rain in the Netherlands where I am.

My daughter just got home from school saying that they were released early because the roof was starting to blow off.

[wtc911]

Whatever it is, it is not a hurricane.

[Gamecock]

To 13

[Lusis]

I looked on Der Spiegel's English site and found no mention of this.

Already the GW crowd is using this, nevermind that usual amount of snow in Seattle and Denver. Nevermind the fact that GW can only be shown if this is an event that reaccurs with increasing frequency, and not if it's only a rare single occurance.

And how is this a hurricane, as opposed to a strong wind storm?

[dirtboy]

And how is this a hurricane, as opposed to a strong wind storm?

It is not a hurricane by any definition of such. Hurricanes are warm-cored tropical or subtropical systems. This is an extratropical cyclone with hurricane-force winds.