STRANGE CONTINENT

A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE

Europe suffered from catastrophic weather in an unprecedented way this summer. First came heavy downpours on 4 June, in Hennef, Germany, which I personally lived through: it rained so hard that underground crossings for cars were flooded, and some roads between villages were completely washed away. On 24 June 2021, it hailed so much that glaciers made up of fast-moving layers of egg-sized hail rushed through the flooded streets of Tübingen, also in Germany. Five people were seriously injured in the region and Stuttgart airport had to close. Houses were also inundated in Munich, Frankfurt, and the regions along the Rhine. In the Czech Republic, 50,000 homes were without electricity, and a house at Plze burned down after being hit by lightning. www.welt.de, 24 June 2021.

Also on 24 June, a tornado with wind speeds of 300-400 km/h (186-249mph) made mincemeat out of seven villages in the south-eastern Czech Republic. “It sounded as if a train were speeding towards my house,”