A police spokesperson said the twister left a "swath of desolation" over a large area. Elsewhere, a vortex hit central Amsterdam as awestruck observers caught the incident on video.
Image: Reuters/Y. Reiff
Advertisement
Tornado in Luxembourg
01:05
This browser does not support the video element.
A tornado ripped through southwestern Luxembourg on Friday, injuring 19 people, two seriously.
Officials said around 160 buildings were damaged by the twister, which struck the towns of Petange and Kaerjeng, near the border with France and Belgium.
Images and videos on social media showed the tornado, with winds of up to 128 kilometers per hour (80 miles per hour), throwing debris, roofs and tree branches into the air.
A spokesperson for Luxembourg police reported a "swath of desolation" spanning up to 6 kilometers.
Prime Minister Xavier Bettel said a crisis unit had been established and the government was helping those impacted by the destruction.
On Saturday, a government spokesperson said up to 100 houses were no longer inhabitable. He could not yet quantify the damage, but said it was "enormous."
The country's rescue center said cleanup would take days. Emergency shelters have been set up for those who lost their homes.
The streets of Petange were littered with debrisImage: Reuters/P. Bourgeois
The tornado also caused damage, but no injuries, in France's Meurthe-et-Moselle region.
The German states of Saarland, Rhineland-Palatinate and Baden-Württemberg were also hit by heavy storms on Friday, causing flooding.
In Amsterdam, residents and tourists were caught off guard by another whirlwind. It was unclear if the wind speeds were high enough to classify it as a tornado. Some damage to buildings was reported, but no injuries.
Tornadoes are less common in Europe than in the United States, where "Tornado Alley" in the Midwest sees many each year. The last known fatalities resulting from a tornado in Europe were in November 2016 near Rome.
Weather forecasting improves as weather events intensify
Since satellites started recording weather data in the 1970s forecasting has taken a huge step forward. It isn't just about sun or rain any more. It's about giving people more time to prepare for extreme weather events.
Image: Reuters/NOAA
Seven days ahead
Weather forecasting has improved massively. 40 years ago meteorologists could only predict weather for the next two or three days. Today weather can be predicted reliably for seven days. But forecasters also give monthly and seasonal predictions. These can be tremendously important for agriculture. If a severe storm is predicted ahead of time, farmers can prepare.
Image: Getty Images/S. Keith
Models and mathematics
Weather is forecast with the help of supercomputers that predict the weather using complex mathematical models and current weather conditions. Some centers for weather prediction take account of up to 900 million global points. For the prediction, the world is split up into grids with grid points spaced 9 km apart.
Image: ECMWF
Pooling data across borders
In 1975 several European states decided to share their data to improve the forecast. They set up the “European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecast” (ECMWF). Today the centre has 22 member states, 12 co-operating countries and some of the world's most modern supercomputers.
Image: ECMWF
Taking more elements into account
Roughly a year and a half ago the centre expanded its weather models. Before, they were based on atmospheric predictions. Now the forecasts take more elements into account, such as ocean and land data. This makes them more reliable. With the weather changing due to climate change, forecasts are changing too. Scientists still cannnot link climate change and weather change exactly.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/T. Katic
Life or death predictions
Scientists are sure that climate change intensifies extreme weather events. Heatwaves are even hotter, hurricanes are more intense. That means weather forecasting today is also about saving lives and protecting property. If the forecasts are more exact and data is available faster, people can prepare better for severe weather events.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/R. Kakade
Very hard to predict
Thunder and lightning are very hard to forecast and becoming more intense. It is impossible to predict exactly where lightning will strike. However, this might well improve. The ECMWF is working on predicting lightning within a 50 km range.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
More time to prepare
In general, weather forecasting will continue to improve. By 2025 reliable weather forecasts might cover 10 days instead of the seven that are possible today. That could well mean three extra days to prepare for storms and extreme weather.
