Extreme storms are becoming more frequent in Burgenland

Extreme storms caused severe damage in Burgenland last week, and such events are becoming more frequent, ORF reported. A supercell caused extensive damage in Kittsee in the Neusiedl am See district, while a powerful wind gust devastated Großbachselten, a locality in Mischendorf in the Oberwart district.

Residents of Großbachselten said they had never experienced anything like it after a sudden gust swept through the locality on Friday. It severely damaged homes and agricultural buildings.

ORF meteorologist Thomas Wostal said the event was a line of storm gusts that formed far from the actual thunderstorm. Such lines are difficult to predict because they can arrive with little warning. They form when powerful thunderstorms sharply cool the air, causing it to descend rapidly. In some cases, the resulting wave can move quickly away from the thunderstorm.

The storm passed almost as quickly as it arrived. It was over in less than a minute, and nobody was injured, but buildings were left severely damaged.

A day earlier, on Thursday afternoon, a supercell hit Kittsee. Wostal said supercells can develop when winds near the ground blow in a different direction from winds higher up. This allows the storm to survive for much longer than an ordinary thunderstorm, which can weaken itself as rain falls through it.

Wostal said increasingly hot summers were also contributing to the rise in extreme weather. Citing a study by GeoSphere Austria, he said weather patterns capable of producing heavy rain, severe wind gusts and hail had increased by 30 to 50 per cent in southern and eastern Europe since the 2000s, and by 20 per cent in Austria.

Calm has returned to Großbachselten and Kittsee, but repairs to the damaged buildings are expected to continue for some time.