Persistent heavy rain caused localized flooding in some parts of the southern German state of Bavaria on Friday.
As of late afternoon, a road accident caused by aquaplaning, and a number of blocked roads were reported to the police. A tree fell across the Munich to Kochel railway line, and a replacement service using minibuses had to be organized.
No injuries were initially reported.
There has not been widespread, heavy and prolonged rainfall in the state for weeks, and the agricultural sector in Bavaria is suffering enormously from the drought. At present, hardly any fodder is growing in the meadows that can be harvested or used for grazing livestock.
The German Weather Service had issued severe weather warnings for some areas of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg in the late afternoon.
During severe storms on Wednesday evening, at least three tornadoes swept across various other regions of Germany. The tornadoes hit Rhineland-Palatinate and Hesse in western Germany, and Brandenburg in the north-east of the country, a German Weather Service spokesman confirmed on Friday.
Tornadoes are swirling columns of air in contact with the ground that rise relatively vertically. They form as a result of extreme temperature differences, which in turn create significant pressure differences.
The tornadoes caused extensive damage in some areas. The roofs of rows of houses were torn off, and numerous trees were uprooted. The mayor of Solms in Hesse, Katharina Didlapp, said it was a miracle that no one had been injured, given the extent of the damage.
In some cases, trees were blown into gardens, and it was not at all clear where they had come from, she said.