The drought was eased by the stormy Whitsunday weekend, JÉGER’s operation was needed across the country

(Photo: Pixabay)

The precipitation that fell during the Pentecost long weekend eased the drought period throughout the country, but in some places the storms were accompanied by hail. Since the rainy periods were replaced by sunny periods – in some places the temperature exceeded 30 degrees – this was another breeding ground for the formation of further thunderstorms. The frontal system coming from the direction of southern France and northern Italy reached the territory of our country by Friday afternoon, thanks to which precipitation fell all over the country, and in the late afternoon the atmospheric conditions were suitable for the formation of supercells. On Friday afternoon, several supercells formed in Transdanubia, the most intense of which reached Székesfehérvár after 4 o’clock, then approached the capital from the direction of Lake Velence. The storm hit Budapest and its surroundings with torrential rain and hail. After the relatively calm day on Saturday, the day started stormy in the morning in Tolna, between the Danube and Tisza and in the northern part of Transdanubia. The most intense cells formed in the afternoon in the Southern Great Plain. On Sunday evening, another supercell heading towards the capital brought downpours and heavy hail to the Buda Mountains. In the area of Budakeszi, Nagykovácsi and Solymár, a large amount of ice fell in a short time, the size of which was the size of a cherry. The weather was similar on Monday, as showers and thunderstorms formed in several places during the day, mainly accompanied by downpours and tiny ice. On Monday, the storms that reached the capital were accompanied by a larger amount of ice, in most places ice the size of a pea fell from the sky. A tuba also formed above Gyömrő.

The ground generators of the ice damage mitigation system were in operation during the 4 days in accordance with the alerts issued by Hungaromet

In the alerted areas, pea-sized ice fell, only in the areas of supercells did ice grains the size of cherries or larger occur. Ice the size of walnuts also occurred in parts of the non-warned area. At the same time, it is important to highlight that soil generators that vaporize silver iodide play a role in mitigating ice damage – they reduce the size of ice grains – but they cannot influence the formation of supercells and have no effect on the amount of precipitation. Beyond our borders, several more violent thunderstorms and supercell thunderstorms formed, which were sometimes accompanied by cherry- and walnut-sized ice, and a large amount of precipitation caused damage in a short period of time. As a result of the frontal system coming from the direction of France, in addition to the hail, floods formed in many places, which also caused similar difficulties in the northern part of Italy. In Austria, as a result of the violent frontal system, in addition to the flash floods, the hail also caused great destruction, in the Burgenland area, the hail caused nearly 1.3 million euros in damage to farmers, in an area of approximately 5,000 hectares. Storms caused similar damage in Bosnia, the Czech Republic and Poland.

NAK