The videos coming out of Frankfurt this morning are just mind-boggling: heavy thunderstorms brought flash flooding to Germany’s largest airport, leading to flight delays, cancellations, and even passengers stranded onboard aircraft due to high water levels.
Harrowing Video: Frankfurt Airport Flooding
By Wednesday evening, August 16, 2023, so much water had mounted on certain parts of the tarmac at Frankfurt Airport that passengers found themselves stuck on landed aircraft, unable to disembark.
Check out this video:
https://twitter.com/i/status/1691941741224411529
This flooding has led to the cancellation of 70 flights thus far, impacting thousands of passengers. Other inbound flights were diverted after weather-related delays meant the 11:00 pm (extended till 12:00 am) landing curfew was missed.
DW reports that as much as 60 liters per square meter of rain fell in the region between 8:00 pm and 11:00 pm last night. During that time, over 25,000 lightning strikes in a one-hour period were recorded in the Hessen region and wind speeds reached up to 60 miles per hour.
There were no reports of human injury or permanent damage to any of the aircraft on the ground. Today’s weather includes more thunderstorms this afternoon, though the morning is projected to remain dry. After Thursday, no rain is in the forecast for the next five days.
CONCLUSION
Heavy showers concentrated into a three-hour period led to runway flooding at Frankfurt Airport, leading to flight delays and cancellations. The video above is quite dramatic, but thankfully no on was injured. Passengers stranded onboard aircraft or forced to divert will not receive EU261/2004 delay credit, as these sorts of events (much to the chagrin of advocates blaming climate change for such freakish weather) do not count as the sort of man-made deals that qualify for cash compensation.
image: @FlightEmergency / X
Ironic, isn’t it?
I’m not lying at all that I switched from YYZ-FRA-GVA with LH to YYZ-AMS-GVA with KL and just arrived in AMS on KL 696. So glad I did that and I guess luck was on my side this time!
According to the article yesterday in The Independent this is all Ben and Gary’s fault.
If they would just quit doing all those TP runs to Hawaii the heat wave would end and the rain would go away
For those more accustomed to measuring rain in inches, that 60L per square meter measurement is roughly equal to 2.35 inches.
I am sure President Trump will be indicted for this…