ESSL [Research - Damaging wind climatology]

ESSL Research

Damaging wind climatology, 2000-2007 and long-term

This page will be updated annually, or when significant new data or results are available. The ESWD reporting criteria and thresholds are outlined in the ESWD data format description (ESSL Tech. Rep. 2006-01) available under "Publications".

Damaging wind incidence in Europe

Damaging wind incidence as a primary measure of hazard

This preliminary figure is based on ESWD reports of damaging, straight-line wind events. The 8yr-period covered is 2000-2007 for which a reasonably homogeneous pan-European data coverage has been achieved. Yet due to the inclusion of the TorDACH reports prior to 2005 into the ESWD, the number of reports is still highest in Germany. The quantity depicted is incidence, i.e. number of ESWD reports per year per unit area. On a 1° × 1° latitude-longitude grid spacing, damaging wind reports per year per 10 000 km² has been computed from 2000 to 2007. Due to the short, sub-climatological time period, the peak values in the graph are likely exaggerated compared to the "true" climatology. The relevant range of numbers (about 1 to 2 reports per year and per 10 000 km² is found frequently in Europe, however.

Damaging wind incidence as a primary measure of hazard
This preliminary figure is based on ESWD reports of damaging, straight-line wind events. The 8yr-period covered is 2000-2007 for which a reasonably homogeneous pan-European data coverage has been achieved. Yet due to the inclusion of the TorDACH reports prior to 2005 into the ESWD, the number of reports is still highest in Germany. The quantity depicted is incidence, i.e. number of ESWD reports per year per unit area. On a 1° × 1° latitude-longitude grid spacing, damaging wind reports per year per 10 000 km² has been computed from 2000 to 2007. Due to the short, sub-climatological time period, the peak values in the graph are likely exaggerated compared to the "true" climatology. The relevant range of numbers (about 1 to 2 reports per year and per 10 000 km² is found frequently in Europe, however.

2000-2007 damaging wind intensity distribution

Based on the data shown on the above map, the following intensity distribution over F-scale results:

F-scale	F-2	F-1	F0	F1	F2	F3	F4	F5	Sum	All reports	% rated	Avg. reports per year
Damaging winds	-	4	466	424	56	3	-	-	953	2610	36.5%	326

Climatological damaging wind intensity distribution

Comparison of long-term damaging wind intensity distributions in Europe with data from the USA

The figure shows damaging wind intensity distributions over F-scale: for Europe from 1880-2007 (1327 of 3075 reports, diamonds) with Weibull fit (red), and for the USA from 1979 (798 reports, boxes, From Fujita, 1981) with Weibull fit (blue). A certain degree of similarity between the two can be expected.

The above figure illustrates that the present intensity distribution of straight-line wind events in Europe is indeed very similar to that in the USA, except for the European F0-events for which a strong underreporting still appears to persist. Judging from the US-experience over the last five decades (Verbout et al., 2006), we can expect the number of reported F0-events to strongly rise in the future, as public awareness levels and reporting standards will become more homogeneous all over Europe.