Tornadoes, hail, flooding: Severe storms break out across Europe

Severe storms have broken out across Europe in recent days with tornadoes, huge hailstones, and flooding all taking place.

Tornadoes were reported in both Germany and France this week. On Sunday a small tornado was reported in Normandy resulting in damage to houses and felled trees.

While Tuesday saw a supercell storm hit the central German state of Hesse where it is thought that a tornado formed to cause damages.

Supercell storms are the most powerful form of storm that can occur, with torrential rainfall and significant potential to cause damages.

In Austria, severe storms of this kind on Wednesday resulted in several mudflows and flooding in the Upper Styria region while hail stones the size of tennis balls were felt in the Möllbrücke area close to Lake Millstatt.

At a Millstatt weather station, wind gusts were measured reaching 59.9 mph.

Winds in Germany on Wednesday were even more intense, with one gust reaching 93.2 mph in Altdorf, south-eastern Germany.

This was the result of a short, but violent, line of thunderstorms which passed over Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria with hurricane strength winds and heavy rain.

This system resulted in power cuts and trees falling as it arrived from Switzerland.

The peculiar shape of the thunderstorm front is known as a bow echo, for its arc shape. This formation begins with a single, large thunderstorm cell.

With stronger wind speeds in the upper air levels, a concave bulge can occur in the direction the thunderstorm is travelling. These are intense systems with the potential to produce wind gusts of over 124 mph.

Severe weather warnings remain in place across large areas of Europe today, with level three thunderstorm warnings covering Germany and western parts of Czechia.