Warning of heavy rain: Danger of severe weather in Hesse is increasing drastically!

Warning of heavy rain: Danger of severe weather in Hesse is increasing drastically!

In the last few days the weather has changed dramatically in parts of Germany. The German Weather Service (DWD) announced heavy rainfall for various regions, with North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and Rhineland-Palatinate particularly affected. In Hesse, however, the situation has now calmed down, but the warning in the Lahn-Dill district remains in place. Up to 35 liters of rain per square meter is expected within just six hours. Weather warnings that came into force on September 9th reached the highest level for extremely heavy rain in North Rhine-Westphalia, with rainfall amounts of up to 90 liters per square meter. [Giessener Allgemeine](https://www.giessener- Allgemeine.de/hessen/starkregen-an-wetter-schnell-in-hessen-dwd-kuendigt-unwetter-und-mega-93922724.html) reports a dramatic change in the weather caused by a front system of a low south of Iceland.

While the weather on Monday, September 8th, was still pleasant with temperatures of up to 26 degrees in Hesse, the coming days promise autumnal temperatures and heavy rainfall. The DWD announced heavy rain in several districts on Tuesday morning, including large cities such as Frankfurt, Wiesbaden and Darmstadt-Dieburg. Up to 50 liters per square meter could fall, indicating that severe weather conditions will continue.

The effects on North Rhine-Westphalia

The effects are already noticeable in North Rhine-Westphalia. On September 9th, the police recorded numerous operations due to flooded basements and apartments. The fire department in Mönchengladbach was on duty until early in the morning and had to deploy around 70 times to free people trapped in water. Measures were also urgently needed in Bedburg, a district in the Rhein-Erft district: many cellars here were under water and streets were flooded. The mayor expressed concern about the infrastructure, which was unable to cope with the volume of water, despite existing retention areas and rainwater retention basins. Tagesschau conveys the picture of a broken system that was unable to drain the water even with a large pump.

Over 100 incident sites had to be processed by the Technical Relief Agency and the fire brigade in Bedburg. In Luxembourg, the emergency services even received almost 300 missions. The situation appears to be getting worse as a result of ongoing global warming, which, according to a recent DWD study, is causing extreme weather events such as heavy rain to occur more frequently in new areas. DWD explains that in recent years the probability of such weather has increased and the natural variabilities are changing.

Changing extreme weather

Climate change has a significant impact on the weather in Germany. An increase in extreme weather events, ranging from heatwaves to heavy rain, has been noted in recent years. The current warnings show that the developments are not happening because the weather has simply “gotten out of control”; Rather, a systematic shift in weather phenomena can be observed. While the probabilities for cold winters and cool summers decrease, the propensity for days with high temperatures and devastating precipitation increases. It remains to be seen whether the weather in the coming days will bring more storms.

In view of these worrying developments, it is advisable to follow the weather forecasts closely and, if necessary, prepare for further storm and heavy rain scenarios. The change from summer to fall always reveals that something is going on on the weather front - and nature is not always predictable.