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'Summer' thunderstorm hits western Germany

Nicole Goebel with dpa
April 30, 2018

Heavy rains, hail as well as thunder and lightning swept across Germany's Eifel region on Sunday night. The city of Aachen was particularly hard hit by the summer-like storm. No one was hurt.

https://p.dw.com/p/2wtcp
car in flooded street
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/R. Roeger

Emergency services in the western city of Aachen on the border with the Netherlands fielded hundreds of calls on Sunday night, as a thunderstorm hit Germany's westernmost regions in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland Palatinate and Saarland.

There was also hail and heavy winds of up to 75 kilometers an hour (47 mph) in parts of Lower Saxony in the north-west.

There were no reports of anyone seriously hurt, although emergency services said the received hundreds of calls in the night.

Flooded Europatunnel in Aachen
The Europatunnel in Stolberg near Aachen had to be closed due to floodingImage: picture-alliance/dpa/R. Roeger

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Like a summer storm

Germany's meteorological service, the DWD, said the thunderstorm had come from southern France, Luxembourg and Belgium and swept across western Germany's Eifel region like a summer thunderstorm, with hail and heavy rains, "which are also typical of what we see in a summer thunderstorm," according to a DWD meteorologist.

Trees on road near Trier
Collapsed trees blocked off this road near the southwestern town of TrierImage: picture-alliance/dpa/H. Tittel

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On Twitter, the DWD provided a lightning map, clearly showing the storm being concentrated west of the Rhine River.

Police said the storm lasted around 70 minutes, damaging buildings, flooding cellars and streets. Some roads were blocked by collapsed trees, and a major tunnel in Aachen had to be shut off.  There were also reports of power cuts.