A rarely seen, gale-force windstorm has torn through north-eastern Hungary, Transcarpathia, and the north-western and eastern regions of Romania and Slovakia. The cold front that passed quietly and almost dry across much of Hungary yesterday wreaked considerable damage in these areas. Here are some of the images and footage.
Ferocious storm slams Hungary
Fülesd is a small village of fewer than 400 inhabitants in Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg county, close to both the Hungarian–Romanian and Hungarian–Ukrainian borders. It was here that yesterday’s devastating, tornado-like windstorm struck, sweeping away large trees as if they were mere tomato stakes. In nearby Kispalád, a hailstorm of a kind not seen for many years battered the village, with walnut-sized hailstones falling everywhere.
As we also reported, yesterday a moderate cold front reached Hungary and raced across the Carpathian Basin, but it did not bring significant rainfall. In north-eastern Hungary and eastern Slovakia, however, it developed into a chain of thunderstorms that ripped through these regions, bringing hail, tornado-like winds and relatively large amounts of sudden torrential rain. In Fülesd, a recently published video suggests that a short-lived whirlwind may also have formed.
Hail fell in Mikota and Tiszakóród. According to idokep.hu, these chunks of ice were lifted up and down repeatedly within the thundercloud for a long period.
One eyewitness said he had never seen anything so frightening, as the gale-force winds toppled trees one after another and tore roofs from residential buildings. You can watch the terrifying footage below:
In the area around Csenger, Csengerújfalu and Tyukod a striking funnel cloud formed, although this is not connected with the possible tornado in Fülesd, as that occurred later. Here are some of the pictures:
Over Uzhhorod, the storm arrived with brutal hail:
Transcarpathia power supply cut
Across the region, the storm caused severe damage. According to MTI, in Transcarpathia power supply has been completely cut in 38 settlements and partially disrupted in a further 64, as a result of Monday’s late-afternoon storm, which in places was accompanied by hailstones the size of walnuts.
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According to the Kárpáti Igaz Szó news portal, in the district centred on Berehove, which is largely populated by ethnic Hungarians, the worst damage was suffered by Bene, Makkosjánosi and Sárosoroszi, where the roofs of family homes, several schools and kindergartens were damaged.
Meteorology: capital’s wind record broken on Monday
The capital’s wind record was broken on Monday, HungaroMet Zrt. reported on its website on Tuesday. It said that on János Hill in Budapest, instruments measured winds of 85 kilometres per hour in the early afternoon’s storm, beating the previous daily record for the strongest gust in the capital. The earlier record for this date was 83 kilometres per hour, also measured on János Hill, in 2019.
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