Jörg Kachelmann criticizes "Austrian weather service warned far too late"
Austria, Poland and the Czech Republic are currently affected by floods and severe flooding. Now meteorologist Jörg Kachelmann is complaining about the Austrian weather service.
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- There have been devastating weather disasters in several Central European countries, including Austria.
- In an interview with the Tages-Anzeiger newspaper, Swiss weather expert Jörg Kachelmann says that the weather service and authorities in Austria issued warnings too late.
- This is also a problem in Switzerland. The reason: "The fear of alleged scaremongering."
Continuous rain has caused considerable flooding in several Central European countries over the past few days. Large parts of Austria, Poland and the Czech Republic are under water, with many places in a state of disaster. The storms have already claimed several lives.
In Vienna, the situation has eased somewhat, but more rain is expected. The well-developed flood protection protects the Viennese, while the situation in Lower Austria is more devastating.
In an interview with the Tages-Anzeiger newspaper, Swiss meteorologist Jörg Kachelmann criticizes the fact that the weather service and the authorities in Austria did not give sufficient warning of the impending water volumes.
"The Austrian weather service warned far too late and too conservatively. But that's common practice in German-speaking countries other than Germany itself," Kachelmann told the Tages-Anzeiger. The Czech Republic and Poland, on the other hand, had done well.
The weather expert had already commented on this in various posts on X on Sunday:
Warnings are often issued too late due to fear of scaremongering
When asked in the Tages-Anzeiger interview whether the large amounts of rain were predictable, Kachelmann clearly states: "Yes, it was predictable based on the model calculations and the great consensus as to where and how much rain would fall."
In a tweet today, Kachelmannwetter - Kachelmann's platform for forecasts and meteorology - announces the end of the heavy rainfall. According to this, there will be one last round of continuous rain in the flood areas today, Monday, after which we can breathe a sigh of relief.
In Switzerland, too, too little warning is often given in the event of storms, says Kachelmann. "That applies to every storm here too: if it says somewhere that someone was 'surprised', it's always a lie. Or it didn't have to be that way."
The reason for the late warnings in German-speaking countries is probably the fear of alleged scaremongering. The meteorologist told the Tages-Anzeiger newspaper: "It's better to do nothing than to do something wrong."
