30 centimetres of ice and snow covered the German city of Reutlingen on August 5, requiring a clean up which involved 250 city employees and multiple snowploughs.

Snowploughs clean up German summer storm

A large tidy-up operation was underway in Reutlingen over the weekend, after stormy weather, hail and heavy rain left the streets covered in 30 centimetres of ice and snow on the afternoon of Friday, August 4. Emergency services in the city, which lies just south of Stuttgart, received over 120 calls during the storm.

“The first operations were people locked in their cars unable to move due to hail on the ground or because the doors [of their vehicle] could no longer be opened,” a spokesperson for the emergency services told the AFP news agency.

250 local workers clean up Reutlingen storm

Once the storm had passed, 250 city employees were sent in to clear the large piles of snow and ice which covered the streets. In a surreal scene, emergency services, city employees and volunteers could be seen shovelling the snow in their summer wear.

Apart from a large tidy-up job, the main disruption caused by the storm was ice and leaves momentarily blocking the city’s drainage system, which led to some underground car parks and residential buildings being flooded.

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