Hanover (dpa/lni) – Storm low “Nasim” swept across Lower Saxony on Thursday, partly with heavy gusts of wind. In Hameln, for example, the German Weather Service (DWD) registered a severe gust of wind with a wind speed of 98 kilometers per hour until the early afternoon. On the Brocken in the Harz Mountains in Saxony-Anhalt, the storm even reached hurricane strength. A hurricane gust of 147 kilometers per hour was measured there in the meantime. Storm gusts were registered in many other places in Lower Saxony, and heavy rain disabled drivers locally.

A tree falls on the railway line near Ahlhorn in the municipality of Grossenkneten in the district of Oldenburg. The traffic of the Northwest Railway in the direction of Osnabrück was until the early evening, as a spokeswoman for the railway confirmed. The fire brigade cleared the route again. The emergency services also had to repair damage in Metjendorf, a district of the municipality of Wiefelstede near Oldenburg. A large corrugated iron roof of a model construction company had been destroyed by the wind, the police in Oldenburg confirmed in the evening.

While the storm in southern Lower Saxony should be gone by Thursday evening, the meteorologists on the North Sea were still expecting an increase in wind. “We do not expect the maximum for the coast until this evening,” said a DWD meteorologist. According to the forecast, severe gusts of wind of around 100 kilometers per hour are then possible again in exposed locations such as on the islands.

According to experts from the Lower Saxony State Office for Water Management, Coastal Protection and Nature Conservation (NLWKN), the flood on Thursday afternoon and Friday morning posed a risk of flooding for beaches and foreland. The forecasts assume that the water levels will be up to three quarters of a meter higher than normal. The danger of a slight storm surge, which was initially forecast at the beginning of the week, no longer exists.

© dpa-infocom, dpa:220407-99-834159/5