© The Weather Channel (screen capture)
The jet-stream pattern in place during the first days of 2019 featured a sharp, southward plunge of the jet stream guiding cold air into eastern Europe and the Mediterranean Sea. A nose of high pressure over the U.K., Ireland and the Iberian Peninsula kept the weather there mostly tranquil.
Europe has arguably had the most interesting weather pattern anywhere in the Northern Hemisphere in the first days of 2019, wringing out feet of snow, coastal flooding, high winds and even blowing dust in parts of Europe and the Middle East.
It started with a powerhouse storm sweeping in from the North Atlantic into Scandinavia and northern Europe as the new year arrived.
The so-called Storm Zeetje brought the first storm surge of the year on the Baltic coast of Germany and southern Denmark.
Strong onshore winds drove water levels up to 6 feet above normal in Wismar, Germany, on Jan. 2, flooding parts of the city center. Flooding was also reported in the coastal towns of Flensburg, Kiel and
Travemunde, and storm surge drove water up the Trave River into the town of
Lubeck.
Water levels in some parts of Denmark were the
highest in two decades, the CPH Post reported. A 5- to 6-foot surge was measured at Bagenkop, on Langeland Island about 100 miles southwest of Copenhagen, a level only reached one other time in 42 years.
The pounding waves
washed out sections of trails along the coast and
partially sank boats along parts of the Baltic coast.
© Reuters/O. Denzer
The city of Wismar in the northern Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania state was one of the worst hit. The water level in the morning rose as much as 1.70 to 1.80 meters (up to 6 feet) above normal, flooding Wismar's historic city center.
Comment: On the same day a strike killed an individual in Namibia.