Cyclone Gudrun

Gudrun was a powerful storm which hit Denmark and Sweden on 8 January 2005, and Latvia and Estonia on 9 January 2005. The name Erwin was chosen by the Free University of Berlin, while the storm was named Gudrun by the Norwegian Meteorological Institute and was the name used in Sweden. Sustained wind speeds of 126 km/h (78 mph) with wind gusts of 165 km/h (103 mph) were measured in Hanstholm, Denmark – the same strength as a Category 1 hurricane. The storm caused significant financial damage in Sweden, where the forest industry suffered greatly from damaged trees, as more than 75 million cubic metres (2.6×10^9 cu ft) of trees were blown down in southern Sweden. This resulted in Sweden at the time having the world's largest surplus of lumber. About 415,000 homes lost power in Sweden and several thousand of these were without power for many days and even weeks in some cases, as about 10,000 homes were still without power after three weeks. The death toll in Sweden was nine victims, eleven in the clearing work, making it one of the biggest environmental disasters in Swedish history, while four were killed in Denmark and one in Estonia.