AMD 5 - Anna Kemeny

Well, while it was tornadoing outside I figured I'd get a head start on meine Hausaufgaben. I figured this would be an appropriate opportunity to learn a little more about German weather. I did some online reading of German weather reports (auf Deutsch) I couldn't understand all of it, especially not the technical vocabulary, but I did get a sense of some of the typical weather conditions in Germany.

To aid my investigations, I used a German dictionary to look up some weather vocabulary.

Wirbelsturm - windstorm; can refer to a tornado, hurricane, cyclone, etc
der Tornado - tornado (well that was a pretty easy one)
der Hurrikan - hurricane
die Trichterwolke, der Wolkenschlauch, der Wolkentrichter - all words for funnel cloud
der Hagel - hail
der Zyklon - cyclone
der Schneesturm - snowstorm
das Gewitter - thunderstorm
die Flut, die Überschwemmung - flood
die Sirene - siren
das Unwetter - severe weather
das Unwetterwarnung - severe weather warning
die Todesgefahr - danger (of death)
der Platzregen, der Regenguss - downpour

It is currently 34 degrees Fahrenheit and partly cloudy in Germany (it's also 2 in the morning). Germany's weather is in general less varied than Michigan's, although it is known to change quickly during the day. Like America, German winters are cold and the summers are warm, but to a less extreme than in America (in the 30s in the winter and the 70s in the summer). Although tornadoes are less common in German and in Europe in general, there have been several outbreaks in the past few years. Judging by the weather reports for Ann Arbor and Berlin, I would have rather been in Germany tonight!!