Storms Boelo and Austen Hit Northern Europe

Storms Boelo and Austen struck northern Europe within 24 hours, killing one man and cutting power to more than 150,000 homes. The systems also disrupted flights and phone networks across the region.

In the United Kingdom, more than 82,000 homes lost electricity on Sunday. Winds reached 135 km/h in the Argyll and Bute regions of western Scotland. A falling tree killed a 60-year-old man in southwestern Scotland and injured two women in central Scotland. The Met Office warned that Boelo posed a danger to life from flying debris and crashing waves, urging people to stay indoors. In Brighton, storm Austen blew away an unused pier on Friday. Authorities warned of flood risk in parts of Scotland and England.

France experienced its first major storm of the autumn. Enedis, a French energy company, reported that 288,000 homes had no electricity at the peak of Austen on Saturday. By midday Sunday, 59,000 homes remained without power, primarily in Normandy and Brittany. A marathon runner in northern France suffered minor injuries when a tree fell on her. In Germany, Austen cut power to 10,000 homes near Freiburg-Breisgau on Sunday. The town’s main hospital limited services to emergency cases due to the blackout, which also disrupted mobile phone networks.

German police reported that two people were seriously injured on Saturday when scaffolding was blown away by strong winds at a market in Nastatten. The storms also affected the Netherlands and Belgium. In Brussels, falling trees injured four people on Saturday. The Dutch coastguard reported that three crew members on a freight ship north of Schiermonnikoog were injured. Two were winched off the vessel and transported by helicopter to a hospital on the mainland.

Hundreds of flights were cancelled or diverted across northern Europe, including at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport. Experts have linked the frequency of such extreme weather events to climate change.