Frightened drivers

Rain, storm, hail: supercell sweeps over Vienna

This impressive photo was taken by Johannes Steinhäuser. It was taken at the Jubiläumswarte.

(Bild: JOHANNES STEINHAEUSER [e-mail])

At the end of a hot summer's day, heavy thunderstorms formed in Vienna on Saturday, some of them with hail and squalls. Cellars and underpasses were flooded and the storm chaos had a massive impact on road traffic. More than 300 call-outs were recorded by the fire department alone, breaking the summer record.

The storm front moved across Vienna from 4 pm. According to Ubimet, more than 112 liters of rain per square meter fell, as recorded at the Hohe Warte measuring station. Vienna has never recorded so much precipitation on a summer's day since measurements began, and it was even close to the all-time rainfall record for the federal capital - 139 liters in 1885.

112 liters per square meter fell on the Hohe Warte. Normally, we record an average of 210 liters there over the entire summer.

Michele Salmi, Meteorologe des privaten Wetterdienstes Ubimet

The south of Vienna remained dry, the north flooded
Exciting: Rarely do such quantities of rain fall in such a short time - in relation to the whole of Austria. 66 liters in half an hour and 94.1 liters in an hour were the peak values in Vienna. For comparison: on the Hohe Warte, only 210 liters of rain fall in an average summer. While the storm mainly raged in Alsergrund, Döbling, Brigittenau and Floridsdorf, it remained almost dry in the south of the city. Unterlaa recorded only 0.8 liters of rain per square meter on Saturday. 

Impressive images of the storm front
Johannes Steinhäuser chose what he calls "the right place to observe the weather" - he took these impressive photos of the storm front passing over Vienna.

This impressive photo was taken by Johannes Steinhäuser. It was taken at the Jubiläumswarte.

(Bild: JOHANNES STEINHAEUSER [e-mail])

This impressive photo was taken by Johannes Steinhäuser. It was taken at the Jubiläumswarte.

(Bild: JOHANNES STEINHAEUSER [e-mail])

Masses of water on the sidewalk

(Bild: Leserreporter/Kurt K.)

The fire department on a mission in Heiligenstadt

(Bild: APA/Stadt Wien/Berufsfeuerwehr Wien)

Driver rescued, mega billboard threatens to topple to the ground
Some of the heavy rain was accompanied by hail and there were repeated flashes of lightning. The districts of Währing, Döbling and Brigittenau were hit particularly hard. Underpasses were flooded, and in Gunoldstraße in the 19th district, near the Pressehaus, a driver even had to be rescued from his vehicle. A "Krone" editor came to the rescue. 

At St. Stephen's Cathedral, gale-force winds had caused a huge advertising tarpaulin to come loose from scaffolding and threaten to topple to the ground.

The "Krone" received videos from a residential building in Brigittenau. Within a very short time, the cellars there were flooded (see video below). Water was also pushed up through the toilet.

Traffic jams because drivers stopped under bridges and in underpasses
There was chaos on the roads at times, with some drivers apparently so surprised and frightened by the storm that they stopped their vehicles under bridges or in underpasses. This resulted in repeated traffic jams on the roads. 

The underpass in Gunoldstraße in Döbling was the worst affected by the flooding. The car of the driver rescued by the "Krone" editor had to be rescued from the masses of water by the fire department.

S-Bahn service partially suspended
Some S-Bahn services were suspended - in the early evening there was no train service between Vienna-Heiligenstadt and Hernals. Vienna Airport did not report any major problems, but there were isolated delays due to the weather conditions, according to the "Krone" newspaper.

The police and fire department are deployed in large numbers. More than 300 operations were recorded by 6 p.m. alone, and numerous cellars had to be pumped out. 

Such a number of operations is a "challenge"
Although they are "well prepared" for severe weather situations, such a number of simultaneous operations is a "challenge", said Martin Hofbauer, spokesman for the Vienna professional fire brigade.