The storm claimed 14 lives in Europe.
Particularly hard hit was the north German port city of Hamburg, which saw wind gusts of up to 120 km/hr. That in itself is not an unusual event for the city, as North Sea storms of this magnitude occur about every 5 or 10 years. What was unusual and devastating, however, was how the city waited until the storm was raging over the city at peak fury before issuing any storm warning at all. Hamburg is governed by a coalition of socialists and environmental greens.
Meteorologist Dominik Jung of wetternet.de here writes that even though Storm Christian had been forecast for days, Hamburg city officials remained deeply asleep and did not wake up to issue any storm warning until 2:26 pm Monday afternoon. By that time the storm was already raging at its peak and the city had plunged into chaos. See wind speed chart below.
© wetter24.de/html Wind speed measured at a weather station near Hamburg. Green curve – wind gusts. Blue curve - wind speed.
