It's been blowing like a banshee all day here in Stuttgart, but so far only a little rain, and it is relatively warm.

Turned into a nice day in Edinburgh - sunshine, light winds, clear skies. It made the fire alarm going off really worth while

Here in Zürich it's howling like crazy but warm and dry (until now). The bulk of the storm is supposed to come in the night.

My GF is worse off though - she is stuck in a train somewhere between Frankfurt and Basel. Deutsche Bahn just suspended all train traffic in Germany. The mobile phone connections are broken down too - either the antennas are torn off or there is too much calls - it is a bit scary.

It must take a lot to suspend all train traffic---I thought logos999 was referring to S-Bahns. I hope everyone is OK.

We lost cell phone communication here in our last windstorm, along with the electricity. It is indeed unnerving. Amazing how we come to depend on these.

I hope you hear from your GF soon, Altamiro.

Correct, all train traffic. It was announced in the late afternoon. But still just a "little windy" in Munich.

Thanks Enzian!

I am sure the only thing she is facing is an uncomfortable night sitting around in some train station... but still, some nervousness remains.

No need to be nervous, the THW is still there too. It could just be an uncomfortable night.

We have storm warnings for tonight in Lausanne but it was a relatively balmy day temperature-wise with light showers. I am from New England so don't mind a good storm once in a while!

Sigh,

I'm flying to Berlin exactly in a week's time, then travelling to 6 countries in Western europe, including Brussels (27th Jan) , Amsterdam (28th Jan). Unfortunately I've bought flight tickets, a railpass costing 350usd... All I think not refundable.

And all those reservations! Oh my. Hope it blows over/dies down by then.

I'm in Russia now, wind's blowing outside like crazy. And did I mention no snow? NO SNOW! Last year the temperature today was -25degree. It's around 5 degree out now...

What has the world come to?

>And all those reservations! Oh my. Hope it blows over/dies down by then.

A winter storm rarely lasts more than 24 hours. Don't worry, a week is enough time for another storm to build up

(just joking)

No snow in the mountains here as well. I was skiing last weekend - hardly any snow in medium altitudes, and the little that was there at the top of the skiing area (well over 2000 m) was turning to slush in the noon already.

Here in Germany, just north of Wiesbaden, the wind is blowing hard and it's raining. We took the dogs out a little bit ago for a potty break and found that the wind had blown down our 20 foot tall apple tree. Snapped it right off mid-trunk. We knew it had some disease inside and were going to take it down in the spring anyway but I wanted to let it bloom one more time. At least it fell away from the house and into the yard! DH is happy because now he gets to use his chainsaw

Karlsruhe isn't too bad any more. Either the worst is over, or maybe this is just a rest and the storm will build up again during the night.

Deutsche Bahn has stopped most trains in the whole of Germany.

For those who are interested: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,...sch-335-rdf-mp

The glass facade of the new main train station in Berlin is severely damaged, threatens to fall down entirely.

Honestly? That's a relief... (In Kursk, Russia) I do not know wether this is the same storm blowing over there? A new storm brewing over here, over an entire new storm all together, but weather here last night was scary. Even now the wind's blowing read hard ( a wuuuuuuu.... a wuuuuu...) really scary, and it's dark. But no trees around here though, that's a relief too...

The official news bulletin from Deutsche Bahn is here: http://www.bahn.de/blitz/view/index.shtml (in German).

The information hotline they installed may be interesting for some: 08000-996633

On most routes the trains are running again but there are delays. Some routes are still closed (see list on page). They hope to be back to normal during the day.

I was nervous that our flight to dallas from Zurich on the 20th was going to be delayed but everything flying in that direction seemed to be on time. We were on a train with a man from Berlin who said all train service in all of Germany was shut down for a couple of days...glad my plans were elsewhere.

>We were on a train with a man from Berlin who said all train service in all of Germany was shut down for a couple of days...

Let's not overdo it. It was half a day.

I'm not over doing it, I'm repeating what a man said who happened to live there.

>I'm not over doing it, I'm repeating what a man said who happened to live there

Well, my GF happened to get stuck in the train between Frankfurt and Basel that night, so I know for how long the system was down.

Actually, according to the media, various train lines were reopened one by one, depending on how many trees were blocking them or electric lines were down. Your girlfriend was one of the lucky ones.