Storm Kyrill 2007: January 18th 2007 is a date many people in Germany still remember clearly. On that day storm Kyrill swept across Central Europe and left a trail of destruction. Eleven people died in Germany alone, 47 across Europe. Deutsche Bahn halted all rail traffic, a first in its history. Power outages paralysed parts of the country, foresters spoke of the largest storm damage volume since storm Lothar in 1999. Around 50 million cubic metres of timber were felled.
In the measurement data Kyrill is unmistakable. In Cologne, maximum wind speeds on 18 January 2007 exceeded 120 kilometres per hour on the 10-metre mean, with gusts far higher. At exposed upland sites like the Wendelstein or the Brocken up to 225 kilometres per hour were measured, peak values otherwise only seen in hurricanes. Air pressure over northwestern Germany dropped by more than 20 hectopascals within a few hours, a textbook meteorological bomb cyclone.
Its extent was remarkable. Kyrill was not a narrow tornado or local downburst but an extended low-pressure system with a storm field over 1,500 kilometres wide. From Ireland to the Czech Republic the system tracked overnight, and everywhere gusts reached storm force. That made Kyrill one of the most destructive European winter storms of the past 30 years, surpassed only by Lothar in 1999 and Daria in 1990.
Compared with an average January, the data shows the storm clearly. The average January wind mean in Cologne is around 15 kilometres per hour, on 18 January 2007 it was nearly ten times that. The precipitation signature is equally visible, strong convective cells brought more than 30 millimetres of rain in a few hours locally. A January 2026 with its quieter progression makes the difference especially clear.
Whether storms like Kyrill are becoming more frequent is an open question in climate research. The synoptic patterns that spawn such cyclones become more intense in theory as sea temperatures rise, but their frequency shows no clear trend. What does change is the mix of snow versus rain in such events and the likelihood that moist subtropical air masses push further north. In that sense Kyrill was a foretaste of what warm winter storms can deliver in a warming North Atlantic.
The comparison below contrasts Cologne in January 2007 with January 2026. The wind KPI shows the difference plainly. For your own comparisons with Düsseldorf, Essen or Hanover simply enter the city in the tool, Open-Meteo data goes back to 1940. The city page /en/compare/koeln offers further historical January values.