Hail alarm in Austria: million losses for agriculture!

Hail alarm in Austria: million losses for agriculture!

Innsbruck-Land, Österreich - Austria has experienced severe storms in the past few days that have caused devastating damage in agriculture. On June 26, 2025, Tyrol, the Styria and parts of Lower Austria, hit it. According to reports from Wochenblatt, the damage in a single day was around 9 million euros. It is particularly impressive that damage of 4.8 million euros, mainly in Upper Austria, was reported on Monday before.

In Styria, gigantic hailstones were measured of up to five centimeters in diameter. These caused devastating destruction on arable and grassland areas, in fruit and tree nurseries as well as in vegetable growing areas. The districts of Graz environment, Weiz and Leoben were one of the most severely affected regions with total damage of 6.2 million euros. In Tyrol, the damage added up to around 2.4 million euros, while in Lower Austria there were particularly grain losses of around 400,000 euros.

warning systems and event cancellations

In order to warn the population in good time, an “at-Alert” was sent to mobile phone devices in Styria. However, this led to uncertainty among foreign guests at the Austria-Grand Prix of Formula 1 in Spielberg, where the event was nevertheless. In the meantime, numerous local events, such as the Wieselburg Volksfest and the Woodstock festival, had to be canceled or evacuated.

long -term effects of extreme weather events

The current storm events are just an example of the rising risks due to climate change. According to an analysis of the ORF, the damage in agriculture has grown to an estimated 250 million euros due to extreme weather events in Austria alone in 2023, with drought and frost particularly serious effects. The Insurance Association Austria (VVO) estimates the total damage through such events to over one billion euros.

The world climate has confirmed that climatic changes such as global warming make extreme weather events such as floods and storms more intensive and common. A report by the [wwf] (https://www.wwf.de/themen-projekte/klimapolitik-international/klimaf research-ext-twetter-Seind-folgen-des-Klimawandels) emphasizes that weather extreme, which used to occur in the past only in decade periods, can now be expected. Therefore, forward -looking measures must be taken to minimize the risk of the population and agriculture.

The urgency of preventive politics is becoming increasingly clear; Experts warn of increasing insurance costs if no sufficient measures are taken. View of a total -state solution for risk distribution could be to link disaster risks to fire insurance.

The situation is alarming and requires immediate measures both at a political and social level to counteract the challenges of climate change and to support agriculture and the population in these difficult times.