Strong winds, rain, snow hit parts of Poland

Firefighters were called out almost 400 times after strong winds, heavy rains and snow hit parts of Poland at the start of this week, a spokesman has said.

Snowfall in the northeastern Polish city of Olsztyn on Tuesday.

Photo: PAP/Tomasz Waszczuk

Fierce winds and heavy rainfall lashed the country’s southwestern Lower Silesia region as well as Wielkopolskie province in the west and the central region of Mazovia, a spokesman for the State Fire Service, Krzysztof Batorski, said on Tuesday morning.

A flooded road near the southwestern city of Wrocław. Photo: PAP/Maciej Kulczyński

Firefighters were called to help pump water out of flooded basements and remove fallen trees from roads, Batorski told public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency.

“In some parts of the country, the temperature dropped by 14 degrees Celsius, causing extreme weather events such as ferocious winds, snowfall and thunderstorms with lightning strikes,” he said.

Photo: PAP/Tomasz Waszczuk

According to Anna Adamkiewicz from the Government Centre for Security (RCB), gale-force winds disrupted power supplies for around 10,000 customers and destroyed the roofs of several buildings near the central city of Łódź.

(gs/pk)

Source: IAR