Fist-sized hailstones, large tornado near Vienna airport, Austria

A large stovepipe tornado touched down near Vienna International Airport in Austria during the afternoon hours of July 10, 2017. Although local media reports mention a preliminary rating of F1, the event was accompanied by fist-sized hailstones that damaged huge swaths of agricultural land, causing a total damage of 15 million euros. This is the second highest damage in a storm in Austria.

The tornado, somewhat rare for this region, touched down around 16:20 CET (14:20 UTC). It was produced by an isolated supercell that crossed the eastern part of Austria, on its way toward Slovakia.

At this time, there are no specific reports of the infrastructural damage it caused, but the twister temporarily suspended all nearby air traffic and was accompanied by fist-sized hailstones that pounded Vienna metropolitan area, damaging around 10 000 hectares (24 710 acres) of agricultural land. Some of the hailstones were reportedly as large as 5.5 cm (2.1 inches).

"The total damage caused by today's storm is around 15 million euros," the Chairman of the Board of Austrian Hail Insurance Dr. Kurt Weinberger said.

This is the second highest damage in a storm in Austria, since the storm that rolled through the country on July 23, 2009. At that time, the country's agriculture suffered a total loss of 20 million euros.

Featured image: Large stovepipe tornado touches down near Vienna International Airport around 18:20 UTC on July 10, 2017. Credit: Alexey Popov (via EUStormMap)