I heard the windstorm that hit Europe yesterday was bad, but what does being in a windstorm in a open field feel like? A hurricane except without the rain?
No, not at all - usually we also had the rain during the strongest gusts, when a thunderstorm augmented the storm.
On Heligoland and Borkum we had measured mind-blowing 191 km/h during a gust (All time record in German history); A place in Denmark got 193 km/h winds.
On the Brocken further inland the record yesterday was a 163 km/h gust.
The weakest Hurricane (Category 1) starts at the 120 km/h for a one minute average - thats essentially what most of the European North Sea cost got yesterday. Some places got Category 2 winds.
The Brocken is usually the best place to experience strong storms, because it is essentially a 1000 m high pyramid rising above the flatland (you can see its top even from hundred km away on a good day), with the rest of the Harz mountains hiding behind it.
9 people died in Germany yesterday, mostly by getting hit by trees.
