Kyrill (storm)

Kyrill

Kyrill on January 18, 2007, at 12:30 UTC
Type	Extratropical cyclone
Formed	15 January 2007
Dissipated	24 January 2007
Lowest pressure	959.8 hPa (28.34  inHg)
Highest gust	250 km/h (155 mph) Śnieżka, Poland
Damage	At least €1bn
Areas affected	Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, Ukraine, United Kingdom

Kyrill /ˈkɪrɪl/ was the name given to a low pressure area that evolved into an unusually violent European windstorm, forming an extratropical cyclone with hurricane-strength winds. It formed over Newfoundland on 15 January 2007 and moved across the Atlantic Ocean reaching Ireland and Great Britain by the evening of 17 January. The storm then crossed the North Sea on 17 and 18 January, making landfall on the German and Dutch coasts on the afternoon of 18 January, before moving eastwards toward Poland and the Baltic Sea on the night from 18 to 19 January and further on to northern Russia.

Kyrill caused widespread damage across Western Europe, especially in the United Kingdom and Germany. 47 fatalities were reported, as well as extensive disruptions of public transport, power outages to over one hundred thousand homes, severe damage to public and private buildings and major forest damage through windthrow.

The storm was named "Kyrill" on 17 January 2007 by the Free University of Berlin's meteorological institute. The storm was named after a Bulgarian man living near Berlin, whose family donated to the university's "Adopt-A-Vortex" programme.

A European windstorm is a severe cyclonic storm that moves across the North Atlantic towards northwestern Europe in the winter months. These storms usually move over the north coast of the United Kingdom, towards Norway but can veer south to affect other countries including Ireland, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Austria, Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland, and Poland. As these storms can generate hurricane-force winds (and sometimes even winds at the strength of major hurricanes), they are sometimes referred to as hurricanes, even though few originate as tropical cyclones.