Storm Ciaranwhich has been affecting Europe since yesterday, Thursday, has claimed lives to at least 10 people, including a 5-year-old child from Ukraine to Belgium, while it has also caused significant problems, with ports closed and flights cancelled.

The storm, which moved eastward after hitting the Atlantic coast, killed three people in Tuscany, in north-central Italy, which saw record rainfall, local authorities said.

“What happened this night in Tuscany has a name: climate change,” Tuscan governor Eugenio Ganni, who declared a state of emergency, wrote on his Platform X account.

Falling trees caused by strong wind gusts accounted for most of these fatal accidents: two deaths in Belgium, two in France, one in central Madrid, one in Germany and a seventh in the Netherlands.

In the Flemish city of Ghent, a Ukrainian child playing outside was injured by falling branches and died a few hours later in hospital, according to the prosecutor’s office. In another incident, a 64-year-old woman, who was visiting the area from Germany, was also killed in a city park. Her 31-year-old daughter was seriously injured.

Storm Ciaran caused the disruption of some rail traffic in Flanders and trains were running at reduced speed in the rest of Belgium yesterday, Thursday.

Maritime traffic was also suspended for the whole day in the Antwerp port zone.

Brussels airport also faced problems. However, flights continued despite numerous delays.

The two dead in France are a 70-year-old man who fell to his death after being hit by the shutters of his residence due to strong winds, and a truck driver who was killed in the north of the country when a tree fell on his vehicle.

Sixteen people, including seven firefighters, were injured in the same zone, one of them seriously, according to the interior ministry.

In France, about 1.2 million households were left without electricity, 780,000 of them in Brittany, in western France.

In addition, the connection to the mobile phone network was interrupted for more than one million people, announced yesterday, Thursday, the French Minister of Digital Government, Jean-Noel Barot, in a message to X.

Closed schools

Ciaran arrived in England yesterday afternoon, where strong winds and heavy rain caused major problems, as sea services from the port of Dover were disrupted for most of the day. Hundreds of schools were closed.

The Channel island of Jersey, on red alert, recorded winds of up to 100 mph (160 km/h) and 35 people had to stay in hotels after their homes were damaged, police said.

All flights were canceled at Jersey, Guernsey and Origny airports.

In Cornwall, in southwest England, power was cut to more than 8,500 households.

In the Netherlands, the alert level was raised to orange, with winds of up to 110 km/h expected.

Canceled championship

Besides, the Dutch cycling championship against the wind was canceled because of… the wind.

“Unfortunately the wind got stronger as the days went by and prevented us from starting the race. Everyone’s safety is our top priority,” the organizers said, as the maximum wind speed during the race cannot exceed 61 km/h.

At Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, around 200 flights, mostly to nearby European destinations, were cancelled. Rail and ferry traffic also experienced problems. Due to traffic jams on the road network, drivers were asked to prefer work from home.

Regional train services in western France were suspended until this morning. High-speed train services were suspended on the Paris-Lemans and Paris-Nantes axes.

In western France, winds reached 200 km/h overnight in Finistère, Brittany.

9 meter waves

The transport sector faced particular problems in western France, where traffic was banned yesterday, Thursday morning in the Finistère department.

At Beauvais airport, near Paris, all flights were canceled until noon.

In Spain, the part of the country most affected by the bad weather is the northwest, where some areas of Galicia are on red alert due to extremely strong winds on the coast.

According to the Spanish meteorological service (Aemet), some coastal areas of the Basque Country are also on red alert, with waves that may reach 8 or 9 meters.

More than 80 flights were canceled at 11 airports in the country.

In the eastern part of the country, “fires fueled by the wind” were reported in the region of Valencia, local firefighters wrote to X. These fires caused the evacuation of villages.

The storm also disrupted rail traffic between Ourense and Vigo and between La Coruña and Ferrol in Galicia yesterday, Thursday, as well as other lines in the regions of Cantabria, Asturias and the Basque Country.

Portugal will not be “directly affected” by storm Ciaran, announced the national meteorological institute, which nevertheless put the coastal areas of the central and northern country on red alert.

Extreme meteorological phenomena (cyclones, heat waves, floods, droughts…) are natural phenomena. But the rise in temperature caused by greenhouse gas emissions caused by human activity can exacerbate them.