Storm Alert: Germany — when and where a thunderstorm is coming

The map below shows near-real-time precipitation and lightning radar. It opens on the radar layer by default — switch to wind to see the direction the front is moving, or to the warnings layer to check whether an official warning has already been issued for your state (Bundesland).

The radar shows what's happening right now. If you want to know exactly what time a storm will reach a specific town and how long it will last, use this site's storm tool — type in a town name and the module calculates a 12-hour forecast from the ICON-D2 model, which is particularly accurate over Germany.

Germany doesn't have one uniform storm climate — the country stretches from north to south and conditions differ regionally. The most intense storms, often bringing golf-ball-sized hail and localised tornadoes, form in the south: Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg and the Swabian Jura. The reason is simple — warmer, moist air moving up from the Mediterranean and the Alps collides there with cooler air masses from the north, and the mountainous terrain further forces the air upward.

In northern Germany (Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern) storms tend to be weaker but more often bring strong wind, because the flat terrain does little to slow the gust front ahead of the storm. The storm season across Germany runs from May to September, peaking in July and August, when the temperature difference between the heated ground and the upper atmosphere is greatest.

A category of its own is the so-called Superzellen (supercells) — long-lived, rotating storm cells that can sit over the same region for hours, bringing extreme hail and gusts exceeding 100 km/h. The German Weather Service (DWD) tracks their development in real time and issues its highest, red warning level for them.

DWD issues warnings on four levels: yellow (possible disruption), orange (serious danger), red (very serious danger) and violet (extreme danger to life). Warnings are issued for specific states and districts (Landkreise), not the whole country at once — so it's worth checking the warning for your specific region, not just the general headline.

The NINA app (Notfall-Informations- und Nachrichten-App), run by Germany's Federal Office of Civil Protection (BBK), pushes notifications about weather warnings and other hazards — free on iOS and Android, worth installing for the duration of a stay in Germany.

If radar or the storm tool shows a cell arriving within the next hour:

• Get off open ground — fields, beaches, hilltops are the worst places to be during a storm.
• If you're in a car, stay inside with the windows closed — the body of the car acts as a Faraday cage.
• Don't shelter under a single tall tree — that's one of the more common causes of lightning injuries.
• Unplug sensitive electronics if the building has no lightning protection or surge protection.
• Follow DWD warnings for your specific district, not just general news headlines.

We've covered a full, general storm safety guide — including on the road, at a campsite and in the mountains — in a separate article.