Latest news with #Tyrol
The Sun
a day ago
- Climate
- The Sun
Horror golfball-sized hail & thunderstorm supercell pummels Austria shattering windows and flooding Alpine resort
A THUNDERSTORM unleashed golf ball-sized hail and torrential rain across Austria - after a trail of destruction in France. The terrifying supercell storm whipped through towns, shattering windows, flooding streets and causing nearly £8m worth of damage to agriculture. 4 4 4 Powerful thunderstorms battered Austria on Thursday, with the national weather agency Ubimet issuing the highest-level warnings in some areas, according to Austrian newspaper Die Presse. The hardest-hit regions were reportedly Styria, Tyrol, and Lower Austria. In Innsbruck, western Austria, hailstones up to 1.6 inches fell, while Tannheim in the Tyrolean Alps recorded over 60 litres of rain per square metre. Lightning strikes also caused fires in some places - in Wörgl, lightning set a family home ablaze, Die Presse reports. The Tyrol fire department responded to around 150 calls, mostly due to fallen trees and water damage. Fügen, in the Zillertal valley, experienced a severe hailstorm that flooded streets. Wind gusts reached 70 mph in Micheldorf, Upper Austria. Kurt Weinberger, chairman of the Austrian Hail Insurance, said the storms caused major damage to agriculture, according to Die Presse. He said: 'Based on initial assessments by our experts, the total agricultural damage from yesterday's storm amounts to nine million euros (£7.7m).' Austrian meteorologist Manuel Oberhuber posted a video of the intense storm in Tyrol on X, writing: "One of the most powerful thunderstorms struck the Lower Inn Valley in Tyrol yesterday. Two dead including child as France smashed by storms with Paris hit with flash floods & 39,000 lightning strikes "A 'right-moving' supercell produced 2-inch hail, torrential rain and severe wind gusts, as seen here in the Fügen area. "Many windows were shattered." In a separate post, Oberhuber explained: "The hail analysis shows the path of the supercell." "You can clearly see that it veers sharply to the right, heading east, compared to the thunderstorm just north of it. "A deviation from the normal movement direction can occur with strong wind shear and often leads to especially intense storms…" Meanwhile, in France, at least two people - including a child - died after a violent storm caused flash floods in Paris. The storm produced 39,000 lightning strikes across the country. In the Dordogne region of southwest France, huge hailstones damaged roofs during the peak of the storms. Around 70 buildings were damaged in the commune of Belvès alone, The Telegraph reports. Tragically, in southern France, a falling tree killed a 12-year-old boy. 4
South China Morning Post
12-06-2025
- South China Morning Post
Why Innsbruck is more than just snow: what to see year-round
Turn from bustling Marktgraben into pedestrianised Herzog-Friedrich-Straße, lined with medieval mansions in pastel colours and hung with elaborate signs advertising ancient businesses, and your eye will be caught by a patch of brilliance in the distance, which brightens further as you approach the heart of Innsbruck's Altstadt, or Old Town. Advertisement This is the Goldenes Dachl, or Golden Roof, a magnet for photographers in this city in the Austrian Tyrol, with 2,657 gilded copper tiles forming a steeply sloping roof over a carved and painted oriel window. It was ordered by Emperor Maximilian I in 1497 to celebrate his second marriage, and when completed three years later, it advertised both the stability of his reign and the city's prosperity. This came both from its silver mines and from its location, where trade routes to Germany Italy , Switzerland and beyond met at a crossing over the River Inn – the Inn's Bridge, or Innsbruck. The town now has 15 bridges serving its 130,000 inhabitants. The colourful facades of historical buildings, backdropped by snow-capped mountains, line the riverfront in the Old Town of Innsbruck. Photo: Shutterstock Look above and beyond the Golden Roof and you'll see a modern mainstay of Innsbruck's economy, the Nordkette, a string of 2,500-metre peaks that draws skiers from around the world. The mountains dominate the picturesque town, their steep, powder-covered slopes nearly as brilliant in the sunlight as the roof below, and ski runs of assorted difficulty are reached directly from its centre in only half an hour by a combination of funicular railway and cable car. But when a spring thaw eventually comes, other reasons to visit Innsbruck do not melt away, and there's more than just the Golden Roof to dazzle visitors. During his long reign (1486-1519), Maximilian chose to live in Innsbruck, nearly 500km to the west of Vienna , for its strategic location and natural resources. Advertisement The Golden Roof – an addition to an even earlier building – was the royal box from which the emperor and his family viewed entertainment in the square below while making themselves visible to the populace. Below the gleaming tiles, its surfaces are carved and painted with the coats of arms of Maximilian's territories, along with an image of himself placed tactfully between those of his first and second wives. And there are scenes of both courtly life and popular entertainment, such as Morris dancing.
Yahoo
07-06-2025
- Yahoo
Five-hour Whitsun traffic jam clogs Austrian motorway
Thousands of vehicles were backed up along a 45-kilometre section of Austria's Tauern motorway (A10) on Saturday as traffic ground to a halt at the start of the Whitsun holiday weekend. The tailback formed south in the province of Salzburg, starting at a tunnel construction site near the town of Golling, media reported. Travelling time for holidaymakers was extended by around five hours with the congestion stretching back across the German border into Bavaria, according to Austria's Ö3 radio station. There were also lengthy delays in the mountainous Tyrol region in western Austria. The area around Innsbruck, the Brenner motorway towards Italy and the Fernpass road (B179) were among the most affected locations.
Reuters
09-05-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Austria suspects woman helped fallen property tycoon Benko hide assets
VIENNA, May 9 (Reuters) - Austrian prosecutors said on Friday they had placed a woman under investigation on suspicion of helping property tycoon Rene Benko hide assets from administrators and creditors dealing with his real estate group Signa's collapse. Benko has been in custody for more than three months as the Central Prosecutors' Office for Economic Crimes and Corruption (WKStA) continues its investigation into whether assets that should have gone towards paying back creditors were hidden in a trust of which his immediate family are beneficiaries. Benko has denied the allegations made against him. The WKStA said it had carried out raids in relation to the case on Friday at two locations in Tyrol, the mountainous state in western Austria where Benko lived and founded Signa. The reason for the raids was that the existing investigation was broadened to include the woman, it said, without naming her. "She is suspected of having helped Signa founder Rene Benko conceal valuable items, thus putting them beyond the reach of administrators and creditors, thereby preventing or reducing the satisfaction of creditors," the WKStA said in a statement. "She is thus suspected of having contributed to the possible criminal offence of insolvency fraud," it added. It did not say whether she had been detained. Benko, 47, became a billionaire by tapping low interest rates to rapidly expand his business, acquiring stakes in prestigious properties from Britain's Selfridges department stores to the Chrysler Building in New York. When the tide turned, Signa became the biggest casualty of Europe's property downturn and Benko went bankrupt. Key parts of his empire entered insolvency proceedings or went into liquidation, with administrators trying to salvage what they could of creditors' investments.
