The 21st century decline in damaging European windstorms
A decline in damaging European windstorms has led to a reduction in insured losses in the 21st century. This decline is explored by identifying a damaging windstorm characteristic and investigating how and why this characteristic has changed in recent years. This novel exploration is based on 6103 h...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:9ce8df24c7dc4ab5a3786bd3fd8489a8 2023-05-15T17:35:05+02:00 The 21st century decline in damaging European windstorms L. C. Dawkins D. B. Stephenson J. F. Lockwood P. E. Maisey 2016-08-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-16-1999-2016 https://doaj.org/article/9ce8df24c7dc4ab5a3786bd3fd8489a8 EN eng Copernicus Publications http://www.nat-hazards-earth-syst-sci.net/16/1999/2016/nhess-16-1999-2016.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/1561-8633 https://doaj.org/toc/1684-9981 1561-8633 1684-9981 doi:10.5194/nhess-16-1999-2016 https://doaj.org/article/9ce8df24c7dc4ab5a3786bd3fd8489a8 Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences, Vol 16, Iss 8, Pp 1999-2007 (2016) Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Geography. Anthropology. Recreation G Environmental sciences GE1-350 Geology QE1-996.5 article 2016 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-16-1999-2016 2022-12-31T15:52:54Z A decline in damaging European windstorms has led to a reduction in insured losses in the 21st century. This decline is explored by identifying a damaging windstorm characteristic and investigating how and why this characteristic has changed in recent years. This novel exploration is based on 6103 high-resolution model-generated historical footprints (1979–2014), representing the whole European domain. The footprint of a windstorm is defined as the maximum wind gust speed to occur at a set of spatial locations over the duration of the storm. The area of the footprint exceeding 20 ms −1 over land, A 20 , is shown to be a good predictor of windstorm damage. This damaging characteristic has decreased in the 21st century, due to a statistically significant decrease in the relative frequency of windstorms exceeding 20 ms −1 in north-western Europe, although an increase is observed in southern Europe. This is explained by a decrease in the quantiles of the footprint wind gust speed distribution above approximately 18 ms −1 at locations in this region. In addition, an increased variability in the number of windstorm events is observed in the 21st century. Much of the change in A 20 is explained by the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). The correlation between winter total A 20 and winter-averaged mean sea-level pressure resembles the NAO pattern, shifted eastwards over Europe, and a strong positive relationship (correlation of 0.715) exists between winter total A 20 and winter-averaged NAO. The shifted correlation pattern, however, suggests that other modes of variability may also play a role in the variation in windstorm losses. Article in Journal/Newspaper North Atlantic North Atlantic oscillation Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences 16 8 1999 2007 |
institution |
Open Polar |
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Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Geography. Anthropology. Recreation G Environmental sciences GE1-350 Geology QE1-996.5 |
spellingShingle |
Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Geography. Anthropology. Recreation G Environmental sciences GE1-350 Geology QE1-996.5 L. C. Dawkins D. B. Stephenson J. F. Lockwood P. E. Maisey The 21st century decline in damaging European windstorms |
topic_facet |
Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Geography. Anthropology. Recreation G Environmental sciences GE1-350 Geology QE1-996.5 |
description |
A decline in damaging European windstorms has led to a reduction in insured losses in the 21st century. This decline is explored by identifying a damaging windstorm characteristic and investigating how and why this characteristic has changed in recent years. This novel exploration is based on 6103 high-resolution model-generated historical footprints (1979–2014), representing the whole European domain. The footprint of a windstorm is defined as the maximum wind gust speed to occur at a set of spatial locations over the duration of the storm. The area of the footprint exceeding 20 ms −1 over land, A 20 , is shown to be a good predictor of windstorm damage. This damaging characteristic has decreased in the 21st century, due to a statistically significant decrease in the relative frequency of windstorms exceeding 20 ms −1 in north-western Europe, although an increase is observed in southern Europe. This is explained by a decrease in the quantiles of the footprint wind gust speed distribution above approximately 18 ms −1 at locations in this region. In addition, an increased variability in the number of windstorm events is observed in the 21st century. Much of the change in A 20 is explained by the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). The correlation between winter total A 20 and winter-averaged mean sea-level pressure resembles the NAO pattern, shifted eastwards over Europe, and a strong positive relationship (correlation of 0.715) exists between winter total A 20 and winter-averaged NAO. The shifted correlation pattern, however, suggests that other modes of variability may also play a role in the variation in windstorm losses. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
L. C. Dawkins D. B. Stephenson J. F. Lockwood P. E. Maisey |
author_facet |
L. C. Dawkins D. B. Stephenson J. F. Lockwood P. E. Maisey |
author_sort |
L. C. Dawkins |
title |
The 21st century decline in damaging European windstorms |
title_short |
The 21st century decline in damaging European windstorms |
title_full |
The 21st century decline in damaging European windstorms |
title_fullStr |
The 21st century decline in damaging European windstorms |
title_full_unstemmed |
The 21st century decline in damaging European windstorms |
title_sort |
21st century decline in damaging european windstorms |
publisher |
Copernicus Publications |
publishDate |
2016 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-16-1999-2016 https://doaj.org/article/9ce8df24c7dc4ab5a3786bd3fd8489a8 |
genre |
North Atlantic North Atlantic oscillation |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic North Atlantic oscillation |
op_source |
Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences, Vol 16, Iss 8, Pp 1999-2007 (2016) |
op_relation |
http://www.nat-hazards-earth-syst-sci.net/16/1999/2016/nhess-16-1999-2016.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/1561-8633 https://doaj.org/toc/1684-9981 1561-8633 1684-9981 doi:10.5194/nhess-16-1999-2016 https://doaj.org/article/9ce8df24c7dc4ab5a3786bd3fd8489a8 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-16-1999-2016 |
container_title |
Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences |
container_volume |
16 |
container_issue |
8 |
container_start_page |
1999 |
op_container_end_page |
2007 |
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1766134133827829760 |