Winter storms
 

Is this supposed to be a joke? 170-200km/h (10-12). It's completely silent at this moment.
http://www.unwetterzentrale.de/uwz/index.html

It's the "Ruhe vor dem Sturm":

http://www.spiegel.de/panorama/0,1518,460452,00.html

I'm afraid it's not a joke. I hope Hamburg is prepared this time.

Seems it's getting rough tomorrow.

Hey--what the heck is happening? I can't read a thing in German. Looks like Hurricane Katrina.

What's happening? I can't read German either.

My German is not great, but gale warning for almost the whole country. Worst storm in over 4 years and winds up to 150 kph.

Hello Germany!

Batton down the hatches! Get out your Gummistiefel! Where are those sandbags?

Hope this will blow over soon.

Gale force winds in Belgium and Holland too today. I wouldn't go near the coast today if you are here. Lots of rain too.

It started getting windy in our neck of the woods in the UK around 3 am and the winds are steadily increasing. I heard we will get gusts up to 100-120 kph, perhaps higher.

The forecast is appalling in England too.

It's supposed to snow here.

Snowing in Edinburgh but not much wind

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/...arnings.html?1

and

http://www.meteofrance.com/vigilance/index.html

Latest wind reading here is 50 mph. The neighbors have a large topiary cat on their garden wall that is really rocking about. Hope the winds die down before the cat pulls the wall down.

Makes you glad this wasn't happening a month ago...Christmas decorations would be flying all over the place! Fortunately, there are no large trees near us, but I do worry a little about the overhead power lines. Also power...already 25,000 people in Berkshire have lost their power. Although our winds are supposed to start dying down this afternoon...but apparently they'll be picking up speed in the north.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the planet in southern Australia, there hasn't been a decent day's rain in over three months. In the state of Victoria, bushfires have been raging since mid-December, and it was announced today that 20% of the state's area has been burnt. And the fires are yet to be controlled! So, if you can spare some of that European rain, it would be much appreciated!

There were 250 000 people without electricity in southern Sweden just two days ago. Three people died in the storm.

It's got its good side.

Quite a lot of trees have been falling down over the past week. So some on the edges of estates have brought fences or walls down with them.

I've just narrowly missed a whole family of deer (about a dozen of them) who'd meandered - in broad daylight - through one of these new gaps and were happily trying to eat their way through all the vegetation along what's normally a busy road. One look at the flannermobile and they got all shy again and ran back into the deerpark.

Oh, and Thames Water have finally lifted the hosepipe ban. I was beginning to get really worried we ought to be watering the lawn.

Blowing at 140 km/h on the nothern French coast. Ferry service suspended.

Parks and gardens in Paris all closed until further notice.

Its so bad here in Brussels I just rang my Insurance co. to make sure the house is covered for every eventuality!
I'm jusdt testing to see if I can editi stuff from last week! By the way, my roof did not blow off

logos999 and others---hope you are doing OK over there. How bad is the storm? Is it over?

I hasn't really started up to now in downtown Munich, no rain at all. You hear the whistling sound just now and then but it's not continuous. They say the maximun will be past midnight and it'll last for 3 hours. The Bahn has stopped operating, so quite many people are stranded.