Damage from Recent Thunderstorms in Romania

The paper presents an overview of wind-induced damage to the natural and the built environment caused by thunderstorms that have occurred in Romania in the past five years (2013–2017). To this aim, a vast online search of mass-media reports is performed in order to identify the date, location and damage type produced by each storm. Due to the lack of measured data, a thunderstorm is identified by means of descriptions of the event provided by interviewed witnesses, by images posted online by the newspaper or by the pattern of damage caused by the storm. The types of damage associated with the identified events include damage to buildings and transmission towers produced by strong winds, damage produced by large hail to buildings, cars as well as crops and flooding produced by heavy rainfall.