Storm Goretti in Great Britain and France, snowstorm Elli in Germany: a part of Europe prepared on Thursday for the arrival of strong weather, reports AFP, taken over by Agerpres.
With gusts of wind expected to be “exceptional”, according to the British Met Office, Storm Goretti, accompanied by snow, will sweep across the UK from Thursday evening and at the same time move towards the French coast.
The south of England and the north of France, swept by the winds
The Met Office issued a rare code red warning of strong winds for the Isles of Scilly and much of the Cornwall region in south-west England, while a similar code red was issued by Meteo France for a northern department.
In Britain – where heavy snow is expected in southern and central regions (with up to 30cm of snow in the Midlands) – Met Office forecaster Neil Armstrong warned that Storm Goretti posed “multiple risks”.
According to the Met Office, the gusts could be “stronger than other recent storms”. The most intense winds are expected to hit the west of Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, where gusts could reach 160 km/h. “Even stronger winds are expected in the Channel Islands and northern France,” the Met Office said.
In France, already affected by an episode of snow at the beginning of the week, gusts of up to 160 km/h are forecast in the department of Manche (north), which is under the highest level of weather warning and where schools will be closed on Friday. Warnings were also issued in about thirty departments in the North West.
“Shelter and do not use the car,” warned the prefecture of Manche on its account on the X network. At the same time, residents were advised to equip themselves with emergency lighting sources and a reserve of drinking water.
The Maritime Prefecture of the English Channel and the North Sea recommended avoiding going out to sea during the storm “for everyone's safety”, as waves of over 10 meters are expected. Brittany Ferries has decided to cancel one of its crossings (Cherbourg-Pool) “for reasons of passenger comfort”. Two races, between Caen and Portsmouth, were rescheduled because of the wind.
In Turkey, navigation in the Bosphorus Strait was restricted in both directions on Thursday until the end of the day (17:00 local time, 14:00 GMT) by the General Directorate of Maritime Safety. Throughout the day, television broadcast images of torn-off roofs, uprooted trees and collapsed walls. The small lighthouse of Sariyer, an elegant area north of the Bosphorus, gave way at its base and sank.
Extremely cold Thursday night, in many areas of the country / Recommendations of the authorities
Temperatures of minus 20 degrees in Germany
Germany is preparing for a snow storm. Several cities in the north of the country, including Hamburg and Bremen, ordered the closure of schools on Friday due to storm Elli, which will bring strong winds from Thursday night into Friday.
The storm will affect the entire country, especially the north and northeast, where up to 15 centimeters of snow is forecast. These precipitations will be accompanied by strong gusts, favoring the formation of tornadoes, according to the National Weather Service (DWD). Minimum temperatures should drop this weekend, reaching minus 10 degrees Celsius and in some areas even minus 20 degrees Celsius, Andreas Walter, DWD meteorologist, told AFP.
The daily Bild reported on some areas of the country that have already been particularly affected by the cold and snow of the last few days, with hospitals overwhelmed by the influx of patients who slipped on icy roads, as well as major disruptions to public transport and the road network in the Hamburg region.
The railway company Deutsche Bahn also anticipates major disruptions to rail traffic in the coming days. More than 14,000 employees were mobilized to remove snow and ice from the train platforms and tracks, the company said.
This episode is exceptional compared to recent mild winters in Germany, which are “a consequence of global warming,” as Andreas Walter told AFP. “A cold, snowy month may still arrive, even as temperatures rise in the context of global warming, but such events will become rarer in the future,” he stressed.
Instead, the Meteorological Institute of Norway indicated on Thursday that the Svalbard archipelago, located in the Arctic, recorded the highest temperature in the country, above 0 degrees Celsius. And on December 22, in Longyearbyen, the capital of the archipelago, it was warmer than in Seville.
