Hail alarm in Burgenland: German-Kaltenbrunn relies on air protection!

Hail alarm in Burgenland: German-Kaltenbrunn relies on air protection!

In Burgenland, the municipality of German-Kaltenbrunn has taken an innovative step in order to prepare for the devastating effects of hailstore. 5min reports that German-Kaltenbrunn is the first municipality in the region that uses the hailflieger to defend the damage. Especially according to the massive damage that a hailstorm weather caused in the community in May 2025, those responsible see urgent need for action.

The costs for the annual hail defense amount to around 6,500 euros. This should be evaluated than low compared to the possible million damage that can cause hail events. In Styria, over 100 communities are part of a similar program to protect the agricultural economy.

frequent storms and their consequences

In the entire Burgenland, the effects of hailstan wetters are hard to overlook. MeinDärzirk reports about the first difficult hailstorm of the year, which caused millions of euros in agriculture. Around 5,000 hectares of agricultural area were affected in the districts of Neusiedl am See and Eisenstadt area, especially in the areas of agriculture, viticulture and fruit growing. The total damage amounts to around 1.3 million euros, which the Austrian hail insurance is significantly involved.

The forecast by Andreas Schaffhauser from Geosphere Austria says that future weather events will become more violent and that both the size and the frequency of hailstormers will increase. The state security center informed about around 30 missions of fire brigades to support the difficult to support communities, including Breitenbrunn, Purbach, Mönchhof and Neusiedl am See.

The context of hail damage in agriculture

hail damage is a serious problem in agriculture not only in Burgenland, but also in other parts of Europe. The Environmental Federal Agency leads from that extreme weather-related earnings loss due to hail, storm and heavy rain are significant. In Germany, for example, weather risks caused annual harvest damage of around 510 million euros between 1990 and 2013, whereby Hagel was responsible for 26 % of the damage. The insurance density, especially against drought and hail, remains low in many regions, although over two thirds of the agricultural areas are insured against hail.

In addition to the insurance policies, more and more farmers are using hail protection networks to better secure their harvest. The increasing amount of damage for hail shows the urgency of measures to protect against nature events that can be reinforced by climate change.

The reality of agriculture in Burgenland and beyond urgently requires a rethink in dealing with extreme weather events and the implementation of innovative solutions to protect agricultural businesses from the dramatic consequences of storms.