A long record of European windstorm losses and its comparison to standard climate indices

Cusack, Stephen

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-23-2841-2023

Articles | Volume 23, issue 8

https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-23-2841-2023

© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-23-2841-2023

© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 23, issue 8

Research article

|

24 Aug 2023

Research article |

| 24 Aug 2023

A long record of European windstorm losses and its comparison to standard climate indices

Stephen Cusack

Data sets

ERA5 hourly data on single levels from 1940 to present H. Hersbach, B. Bell, P., Berrisford, G. Biavati, A. Horányi, J., Muñoz Sabater, J. Nicolas, C. Peubey, R. Radu, I. Rozum, D. Schepers, A. Simmons, C. Soci, D. Dee, and J.-N. Thépaut https://doi.org/10.24381/cds.adbb2d47

Gridded Population of the World, Version 4.11 (GPWv4): Population Count, Revision 11, Palisades Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) Columbia University https://doi.org/10.7927/H4JW8BX5

Short summary

The link from European windstorm research findings to insurance applications is strengthened by a new storm loss history spanning 1950 to 2022. It is based on ERA5 winds, together with long-term trends from observed gusts for improved validation. Correlations between losses and climate indices are around 0.4 for interannual variations, rising to 0.7 for decadal variations. A significant divergence between standard climate indices and storm losses over the past 20 years needs further research.