"Tornado" in Germany 24.5.10. Video footage

Su Campu

Here's a video taken during what is reported to be a tornado in the German town of Meissen. One 6yr old girl was killed when a tree fell on her car, and 50 were injured. Max reported windspeed was 193mph. Amazing footage, from a very calm cameraman!

Although there are many witnesses to the damage caused, there aren't any reported to have witnessed the actual vortex itself, which raised the question was it a tornado or a straightline wind event, such as a derecho. The German Met Office mentioned a "possible" tornado on their report the next day, and the numerous German weather forums are still hotly debating the issue.

Whatever it was, it was pretty violent!

nacho libre

the downside of extreme weather:( well, that's stating the obvious i suppose:o

yogidc26

God at 1.00 when the tree falls over thats some wind :eek:

Deep Easterly

Su Campu wrote: »

Although there are many witnesses to the damage caused, there aren't any reported to have witnessed the actual vortex itself, which raised the question was it a tornado or a straightline wind event, such as a derecho. The German Met Office mentioned a "possible" tornado on their report the next day, and the numerous German weather forums are still hotly debating the issue.

Going by nothing more than the video footage, I would guess it was a Derecho as there seemed to be little sign of any significant changing of wind direction that would be a constant during tornadic winds. Of course, wind direction would remain relatively constant if the central vortex was some distant away and slow moving but going by the apparent sustained windspeed in the first part of the video, I would guess this was not the cause.
I could be wrong though.

Su Campu

Deep Easterly wrote: »

Going by nothing more than the video footage, I would guess it was a Derecho as there seemed to be little sign of any significant changing of wind direction that would be a constant during tornadic winds. Of course, wind direction would remain relatively constant if the central vortex was some distant away and slow moving but going by the apparent sustained windspeed in the first part of the video, I would guess this was not the cause.
I could be wrong though.

Yeah I thought derecho too the first time I saw it. Looking back at GFS archives there was an area of enhanced instability in that region in the warm humid airmass ahead of a vigorous cold front moving southwards. It wouldn't be the first time eastern Germany got a derecho, there was the famous one of July 2, 2002. This "only" produced measured windspeeds of 93mph though, so add another 100mph on to that and you got yourself a breeze!

http://www.estofex.org/files/derecho.pdf

Su Campu

The ESTOFEX team absolutely nailed this one in their forecast issued the night before. Fair play

El Horseboxo

Looks like a derecho as the wind just seems constant without gusts. We used to get them near the end of summer when i lived in Kansas. Unbelievable events and amazing looking when when they happened around sunset. Definitely doesn't appear to be a tornado. They should know by looking at the radar. Derechos are pretty distinct. Well in the US they are anyways.