Storm Luise is crossing Germany with fallen trees, damaged overhead lines and closed attractions. Rail disruption is growing, and the peak of the strong autumn storm is expected only from Saturday evening. The German Weather Service expects the worst of Luise on Saturday evening and in the first half of the night.
The Harz is among the hardest-hit areas. On the Brocken, the highest mountain in the range in Saxony-Anhalt, hurricane-force gusts of up to 150 km/h are forecast in the night leading into Sunday, and hiking there can become dangerous. Exposed uplands may see storm force 10 to 12 on Sunday. The North Sea coast already had storm gusts on Saturday, with severe storm to partly hurricane-force gusts of force 10–11 possible on Sunday. Western Germany is due a sharp increase overnight into Sunday, with gusts of force 8–9. The east and south-east face the lowest risk, around force 8 on Sunday, according to the weather service.
Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein face a wet and at times very stormy weekend, with about 13 degrees and repeated rain on Saturday as the wind strengthens. Overnight into Sunday, fresh and partly heavy rain is expected from the North Sea. Severe gusts of about 95 km/h are forecast on the coast, and hurricane-force gusts of about 110 km/h or more are possible in North Frisia and on Helgoland. The storm is pushing water against the North Sea coast, though a storm surge is mostly not expected. Sunday stays rough on that coast, with rain, showers, isolated thunderstorms and a strong south-west to west wind near 13 degrees. Isolated hurricane-force gusts on the North Sea are not ruled out, and it can also be stormy farther inland.
The weather service advises caution because falling trees and branches can be dangerous and says people should avoid staying outdoors if possible. The Brocken is also expected to stay stormy on Sunday, with partly heavy rain.
Storm damage and emergency calls had already begun on Friday and overnight into Saturday. Near Pforzheim, a regional train carrying hundreds of passengers, bound for Mühlacker, collided with a branch that struck the windscreen. The train stopped on the line. Firefighters, rescue services and state and federal police attended, and rail traffic was suspended. Nobody was injured. On Friday evening in Karlsruhe, rail traffic was completely halted after storm damage sent an object into an overhead line and caused a heavy flashover.
In North Rhine-Westphalia the storm damaged an overhead line between Stolberg and Aachen-Rothe Erde, affecting RE 1, RE 9 and RB 20 among other services. A fallen tree blocked the tracks between Neuss and Meerbusch, so RE 7, RE 10 and RB 37 trains were diverted or terminated early. Another tree blocked the line between Duisburg-Ruhrort and Oberhausen.
Near Thedinghausen, in the district of Verden in Lower Saxony, a gust on Friday blew a drinks lorry onto the verge. A second drinks lorry tried to pass and also became stuck, closing the country road.
In Nastätten in Rhineland-Palatinate, scaffolding fell late on Friday afternoon in the Bahnhofstraße area during the Oktobermarkt. Initial reports said several people were injured. In Weinheim in Baden-Württemberg, a tree about twelve metres long fell onto a small car while it was moving. The driver was not injured but suffered shock. In Saarland, police had already counted 59 deployments by early evening, most of them for branches or trees that had fallen onto roads.
Europa-Park in Rust temporarily scaled back operations because of the weather. Germany’s largest amusement park closed its large outdoor roller coasters and said the rides should reopen once conditions allow.