HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

European windstorms are powerful extratropical cyclones which form as cyclonic windstorms associated with areas of low atmospheric pressure. They can occur throughout the year, but are most frequent between October and March, with peak intensity in the winter months. Deep areas of low pressure are common over the North Atlantic, and occasionally start as
nor'easter A nor'easter (also northeaster; see below), or an East Coast low is a synoptic-scale extratropical cyclone in the western North Atlantic Ocean. The name derives from the direction of the winds that blow from the northeast. The original use o ...
s off the
New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...
coast. They frequently track across the North Atlantic Ocean towards the north of
Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...
and into the Norwegian Sea, which generally minimizes the impact to inland areas; however, if the track is further south, it may cause adverse weather conditions across
Central Europe Central Europe is an area of Europe between Western Europe and Eastern Europe, based on a common historical, social and cultural identity. The Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) between Catholicism and Protestantism significantly shaped the a ...
, Northern Europe and especially
Western Europe Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's countries and territories vary depending on context. The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the ancient Mediterranean ...
. The countries most commonly affected include the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...
,
Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...
, the
Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
,
Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of ...
, Germany, the
Faroe Islands The Faroe Islands ( ), or simply the Faroes ( fo, Føroyar ; da, Færøerne ), are a North Atlantic island group and an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. They are located north-northwest of Scotland, and about halfway bet ...
and
Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its ...
. The strong wind phenomena intrinsic to European windstorms, that give rise to "damage footprints" at the surface, can be placed into three categories, namely the "warm jet", the "cold jet" and the "sting jet". These phenomena vary in terms of physical mechanisms, atmospheric structure, spatial extent, duration, severity level, predictability and location relative to cyclone and fronts. On average, these storms cause economic damage of around €1.9 billion per year and insurance losses of €1.4 billion per year (1990–1998). They cause the highest amount of natural catastrophe insurance loss in Europe.


Cyclogenesis


North Atlantic Oscillation

The state of the North Atlantic Oscillation relates strongly to the frequency, intensity, and tracks of European windstorms. An enhanced number of storms have been noted over the North Atlantic region during positive NAO phases (compared to negative NAO phases) and is due to larger areas of suitable growth conditions. The occurrence of extreme North Atlantic cyclones is aligned with the NAO state during the cyclones' development phase. The strongest storms are embedded within, and form in large scale atmospheric flow. It should be kept in mind that, on the other hand, the cyclones themselves play a major role in steering the NAO phase. Aggregate European windstorm losses show a strong dependence on NAO, with losses increasing/decreasing 10-15% at all return periods.


Clustering

Temporal clustering of windstorm events has also been noted, with eight consecutive storms hitting Europe during the winter of 1989/90. Cyclone Lothar and Martin in 1999 were separated by only 36 hours. Cyclone Kyrill in 2007 followed only four days after Cyclone Per. In November 2011, Cyclone Berit moved across Northern Europe, and just a day later another storm, named Yoda, hit the same area.


Nomenclature


Naming of individual storms

Up to the second half of the 19th century, European windstorms were named after the person who spotted them. Usually, they would be named either by the year, the date, the Saint's day of their occurrence or any other way that made them commonly known. However, a storm may still be named differently in different countries. For instance, the Norwegian weather service also names independently notable storms that affect
Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of ...
, which can result in multiple names being used in different countries they affect, such as: * 1999 storm " Anatol" in Germany, is known as the "December hurricane" or "Adam" in Denmark and as "Carola" in Sweden. * 2011 storm " Dagmar" in Norway and Sweden is known as "Patrick" in Germany and "Tapani" in Finland. * 2013
St. Jude storm The St. Jude storm, also known as Cyclone Christian, and other names, was a severe hurricane-force European windstorm that hit Northwestern Europe on 27 and 28 October 2013 causing at least 17 deaths. The highest windspeed was in Denmark, where a ...
in the English media, is known as Christian in German and French (following the Free University of Berlin's Adopt-a-Vortex program) it was named Simone by the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute, and as the October storm in Danish and Dutch, it was later given the name Allan by the Danish Meteorological Institute following the political decision to name strong storms which affect Denmark. An alternative Scottish naming system arose in 2011 via social media/Twitter which resulted in the humorous naming of Hurricane Bawbag and Hurricane Fannybaws. Such usage of the term Hurricane is not without precedent, as the 1968 Scotland storm was referred to as "Hurricane Low Q".


UK and Ireland

The UK
Met Office The Meteorological Office, abbreviated as the Met Office, is the United Kingdom's national weather service. It is an executive agency and trading fund of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and is led by CEO Penelop ...
and Ireland's Met Éireann held discussions about developing a common naming system for Atlantic storms. In 2015 a pilot project by the two forecasters was launched as "''Name our storms''" which sought public participation in naming large-scale cyclonic windstorms affecting the UK and/or Ireland over the winter of 2015/16. The UK/Ireland storm naming system began its first operational season in 2015/2016, with Storm Abigail. An independent forecaster, the European Windstorm Centre, also has its own naming list, although this is not an official list.


Germany

During 1954, Karla Wege, a student at the Free University of Berlin's meteorological institute suggested that names should be assigned to all areas of low and high pressure that influenced the weather of Central Europe. The university subsequently started to name every area of high or low pressure within its weather forecasts, from a list of 260 male and 260 female names submitted by its students. The female names were assigned to areas of low pressure while male names were assigned to areas of high pressure. The names were subsequently exclusively used by Berlin's media until February 1990, after which the German media started to commonly use the names, however, they were not officially approved by the German Meteorological Service
Deutscher Wetterdienst The () or DWD for short, is the German Meteorological Service, based in Offenbach am Main, Germany, which monitors weather and meteorological conditions over Germany and provides weather services for the general public and for nautical, avia ...
. The DWD subsequently banned the usage of the names by their offices during July 1991, after complaints had poured in about the naming system. However, the order was leaked to the German press agency,
Deutsche Presse-Agentur Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH (dpa) is a German news agency founded in 1949. Based in Hamburg, it has grown to be a major worldwide operation serving print media, radio, television, online, mobile phones, and national news agencies. News is ava ...
, who ran it as its lead weather story. Germany's ZDF television channel subsequently ran a phone in poll on 17 July 1991 and claimed that 72% of the 40,000 responses favored keeping the names. This made the DWD pause and think about the naming system and these days the DWD accept the naming system and request that it is maintained. During 1998 a debate started about if it was discrimination to name areas of high pressure with male names and the areas of low pressure with female names. The issue was subsequently resolved by alternating male and female names each year. In November 2002 the "Adopt-a-Vortex" scheme began, which allows members of the public or companies to buy naming rights for a letter chosen by the buyer that are then assigned alphabetically to high and low pressure areas in Europe during each year. The naming comes with the slim chance that the system will be notable. The money raised by this is used by the meteorology department to maintain weather observations at the Free University. Names are listed alphabetically beginning in September.


Name of phenomena

Several European languages use
cognate In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words in different languages that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymological ancestor in a common parent language. Because language change can have radical ef ...
s of the word ''huracán'' (''ouragan'', ''uragano'', ''orkan'', ''huragan'', ''orkaan'', ''ураган'', which may or may not be differentiated from tropical hurricanes in these languages) to indicate particularly strong cyclonic winds occurring in Europe. The term hurricane as applied to these storms is not in reference to the structurally different
tropical cyclone A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Dep ...
of the same name, but to the ''hurricane strength'' of the wind on the
Beaufort scale The Beaufort scale is an empirical measure that relates wind speed to observed conditions at sea or on land. Its full name is the Beaufort wind force scale. History The scale was devised in 1805 by the Irish hydrographer Francis Beaufort ...
(winds ≥ 118 km/h or ≥ 73 mph). In English, use of term ''hurricane'' to refer to European windstorms is mostly discouraged, as these storms do not display the structure of tropical storms. Likewise the use of the French term ''ouragan'' is similarly discouraged as ''hurricane'' is in English, as it is typically reserved for tropical storms only. European windstorms in
Latin Europe The Latins were originally an Italic tribe in ancient central Italy from Latium. As Roman power and colonization spread Latin culture during the Roman Republic. Latins culturally "Romanized" or "Latinized" the rest of Italy, and the word Lat ...
are generally referred to by derivatives of ''tempestas'' (''tempest'', ''tempête'', ''tempestado'', ''tempesta''), meaning storm, weather, or season, from the
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
''tempus'', meaning time. Globally storms of this type forming between 30° and 60° latitude are known as ''extratropical cyclones''. The name ''European windstorm'' reflects that these storms in Europe are primarily notable for their strong winds and associated damage, which can span several nations on the continent. The strongest cyclones are called ''windstorms'' within academia and the insurance industry. The name ''European windstorm'' has not been adopted by the UK Met Office in broadcasts (though it is used in their academic research), the media or by the general public, and appears to have gained currency in academic and insurance circles as a linguistic and terminologically neutral name for the phenomena. In contrast to some other European nations there is a lack of a widely accepted name for these storms in English. The Met Office and UK media generally refer to these storms as ''severe gales''. The current definition of severe gales (which warrants the issue of a weather warning) are repeated gusts of or more over inland areas. European windstorms are also described in forecasts variously as ''winter storms'', ''winter lows'', ''autumnal lows'', ''Atlantic lows'' and ''cyclonic systems''. They are also sometimes referred to as ''bullseye isobars'' and ''dartboard lows'' in reference to their appearance on weather charts. A
Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...
exhibition has used the name ''European cyclones'', with ''North-Atlantic cyclone'' and ''North-Atlantic windstorms'' also being used. Though with the advent of the "Name our Storms" project, they are generally known as storms.


Economic impact


Insurance losses

Insurance losses from windstorms are the second greatest source of loss for any natural peril after
Atlantic hurricane An Atlantic hurricane, also known as tropical storm or simply hurricane, is a tropical cyclone that forms in the Atlantic Ocean, primarily between the months of June and November. A hurricane differs from a cyclone or typhoon only on the basis of ...
s in the United States. Windstorm losses exceed those caused by flooding in Europe. For instance one windstorm, Kyrill in 2007, exceeded the losses of the 2007 United Kingdom floods. On average, some 200,000 buildings are damaged by high winds in the UK every year.


Energy supplies

European windstorms wipe out electrical generation capacity across large areas, making supplementation from abroad difficult (windturbines shut down to avoid damage and nuclear capacity may shut if cooling water is contaminated or flooding of the power plant occurs). Transmission capabilities can also be severely limited if power lines are brought down by snow, ice or high winds. In the wake of Cyclone Gudrun in 2005 Denmark and Latvia had difficulty importing electricity, and Sweden lost 25% of its total power capacity as the
Ringhals Nuclear Power Plant Ringhals is a nuclear power plant in Sweden. It is situated on the Värö Peninsula (Swedish: Väröhalvön) in Varberg Municipality approximately 65 km south of Gothenburg. With a total power rating of 2,190 MWe, it is the second larges ...
and Barsebäck nuclear power plant nuclear plants were shut down. During the
Boxing Day Storm The Boxing Day Storm (also called the Great Boxing Day Storm of 1998 or Hurricane Stephen) was an Atlantic windstorm that made landfall in northwest Ireland. It peaked on Boxing Day, 26 December, which is celebrated as St. Stephen's Day in Ire ...
of 1998 the reactors at Hunterston B nuclear power station were shut down when power was lost, possibly due to arcing at pylons caused by salt spray from the sea. When the grid connection was restored, the generators that had powered the station during the blackout were shut down and left on "manual start", so when the power failed again the station was powered by batteries for a short time of around 30 minutes, until the diesel generators were started manually. During this period the reactors were left without forced cooling, in a similar fashion to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, but the event at Hunterston was rated as International Nuclear Event Scale 2. A year later in 1999 during the Lothar storm Flooding at the Blayais Nuclear Power Plant resulted in a "level 2" event on the International Nuclear Event Scale. Cyclone Lothar and Martin in 1999 left 3.4 million customers in France without electricity, and forced
EdF EDF may refer to: Organisations * Eclaireurs de France, a French Scouting association * Education for Development Foundation, a Thai charity * Électricité de France, a French energy company ** EDF Energy, their British subsidiary ** EDF Luminus ...
to acquire all the available portable power generators in Europe, with some even being brought in from Canada. These storms brought a fourth of France's high-tension transmission lines down and 300 high-voltage transmission pylons were toppled. It was one of the greatest energy disruptions ever experienced by a modern developed country. Following the Great Storm of 1987 the High Voltage Cross-Channel Link between the UK and France was interrupted, and the storm caused a domino-effect of power outages throughout the Southeast of England. Conversely windstorms can produce too much wind power.
Cyclone Xynthia Cyclone Xynthia was an exceptionally violent European windstorm which crossed Western Europe between 27 February and 1 March 2010. It reached a minimum pressure of on 27 February. In France—where it was described by the civil defence as the m ...
hit Europe in 2010, generating 19000 megawatts of electricity from Germany's 21000 wind turbines. The electricity produced was too much for consumers to use, and prices on the European Energy Exchange in
Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...
plummeted, which resulted in the grid operators having to pay over 18 euros per megawatt-hour to offload it, costing around half a million euros in total. Disruption of the gas supply during Cyclone Dagmar in 2011 left
Royal Dutch Shell Shell plc is a British multinational oil and gas company headquartered in London, England. Shell is a public limited company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and secondary listings on Euronext Amsterdam and the New ...
's Ormen Lange gas processing plant in Norway inoperable after its electricity was cut off by the storm. This left gas supplies in the United Kingdom vulnerable as this facility can supply up to 20 percent of the United Kingdom's needs via the
Langeled pipeline The Langeled pipeline (originally known as Britpipe) is an underwater gas pipeline transporting Norwegian natural gas to the United Kingdom. Before the completion of the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, it was the longest subsea pipeline in the world. ...
. However, the disruption came at a time of low demand. The same storm also saw the Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant also affected, as algae and mud stirred up by the storm were sucked into the cooling system, resulting in one of the generators being shut down. A similar situation was reported in the wake of
Storm Angus A storm is any disturbed state of the natural environment or the atmosphere of an astronomical body. It may be marked by significant disruptions to normal conditions such as strong wind, tornadoes, hail, thunder and lightning (a thunderst ...
in 2016 (though not linked specifically to the storm) when reactor 1 at Torness Nuclear Power Station in Scotland was taken offline after a sea water intake tripped due to excess seaweed around the inlet. Also following Storm Angus the UK's National Grid launched an investigation into whether a ship's anchor damaged four of the eight cables of the Cross Channel high voltage interconnector, which would leave it only able to operate at half of its capacity until February 2017.


Notable windstorms


Historic windstorms

* Grote Mandrenke, 1362 – A southwesterly Atlantic gale swept across England, the Netherlands, northern Germany and southern Denmark, killing over 25,000 and changing the Dutch-German-Danish coastline. * Burchardi flood, 1634 – Also known as "second Grote Mandrenke", hit Nordfriesland, drowned about 8,000–15,000 people and destroyed the island of Strand. * Great Storm of 1703 – Severe gales affect south coast of England. * Night of the Big Wind, 1839 – The most severe windstorm to hit Ireland in recent centuries, with hurricane-force winds, killed between 250 and 300 people and rendered hundreds of thousands of homes uninhabitable. * Royal Charter Storm, 25–26 October 1859 – The Royal Charter Storm was considered to be the most severe storm to hit the British Isles in the 19th century, with a total death toll estimated at over 800. It takes its name from the ship ''Royal Charter'', which was driven by the storm onto the east coast of Anglesey, Wales, with the loss of over 450 lives. *
The Tay Bridge Disaster "The Tay Bridge Disaster" is a poem written in 1880 by the Scottish poet William McGonagall, who has been recognized as the worst poet in history. The poem recounts the events of the evening of 28 December 1879, when, during a severe gale, the ...
, 1879 – Severe gales (estimated to be Force 10–11) swept the east coast of Scotland, infamously resulting in the collapse of the Tay Rail Bridge and the loss of 75 people who were on board the ill-fated train. * 1928 Thames flood, 6–7 January 1928 – Snow melt combined with heavy rainfall and a storm surge in the North Sea led to flooding in central London and the loss of 14 lives.


Severe storms since 1950

*
North Sea flood of 1953 The 1953 North Sea flood was a major flood caused by a heavy storm surge that struck the Netherlands, north-west Belgium, England and Scotland. Most sea defences facing the surge were overwhelmed, causing extensive flooding. The storm and flo ...
– Considered to be the worst natural disaster of the 20th century both in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, claiming over 2,500 lives, including 133 lost when the car ferry MV ''Princess Victoria'' sank in the North Channel east of
Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...
. *
Great Sheffield Gale The Great Sheffield Gale is the name given to an intense European windstorm which crossed the United Kingdom in mid-February 1962, devastating the city of Sheffield in the West Riding of Yorkshire. Nine people were killed across the country, ...
and the North Sea flood of 1962 – Powerful windstorm crossed the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...
, killing nine people and devastating the city of
Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire ...
with powerful winds. The storm then reached the German coast of the North Sea with wind speeds up to 200 km/h. The accompanying
storm surge A storm surge, storm flood, tidal surge, or storm tide is a coastal flood or tsunami-like phenomenon of rising water commonly associated with low-pressure weather systems, such as cyclones. It is measured as the rise in water level above the ...
combined with the high
tide Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the Moon (and to a much lesser extent, the Sun) and are also caused by the Earth and Moon orbiting one another. Tide tables ...
pushed water up the
Weser The Weser () is a river of Lower Saxony in north-west Germany. It begins at Hannoversch Münden through the confluence of the Werra and Fulda. It passes through the Hanseatic city of Bremen. Its mouth is further north against the ports o ...
and
Elbe The Elbe (; cs, Labe ; nds, Ilv or ''Elv''; Upper and dsb, Łobjo) is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (western half of the Czech Re ...
, breaching dikes and caused extensive flooding, especially in
Hamburg Hamburg (, ; nds, label=Hamburg German, Low Saxon, Hamborg ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (german: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg; nds, label=Low Saxon, Friee un Hansestadt Hamborg),. is the List of cities in Germany by popul ...
. 315 people were killed, around 60,000 were left homeless. * Gale of January 1976 2–5 January 1976 – Widespread wind damage was reported across Europe from Ireland to Central Europe. Coastal flooding occurred in the United Kingdom, Belgium and Germany with the highest storm surge of the 20th century recorded on the German North Sea coast. * Great Storm of 1987 – This storm affected southeastern England and northern France. In England maximum mean wind speeds of 70 knots (an average over 10 minutes) were recorded. The highest gust of was recorded at
Pointe du Raz The Pointe du Raz is a promontory that extends into the Atlantic from western Brittany, in France. The local Breton name is ''Beg ar Raz''. It is the western point of the ''commune'' of Plogoff, Finistère. It is named after the ''Raz de Sein' ...
in Brittany. In all, 19 people were killed in England and 4 in France. 15 million trees were uprooted in England. *1990 storm series – Between 25 January and 1 March 1990, eight severe storms crossed Europe including the
Burns' Day storm The Burns' Day Storm (also known as Cyclone Daria) was an extremely violent windstorm that took place on 25–26 January 1990 over North-Western Europe. It is one of the strongest European windstorms on record. This storm has received differen ...
(Daria), Vivian & Wiebke. The total costs resulting from these storms was estimated at almost €13 billion. *
Braer Storm of January 1993 The Braer Storm was the most intense extratropical cyclone ever recorded over the northern Atlantic Ocean, as well as the strongest recorded worldwide. Developing as a weak frontal wave on 8 January 1993, the system moved rapidly northeast. The ...
– the most intense storm of this kind on record. * Cyclones Lothar and
Martin Martin may refer to: Places * Martin City (disambiguation) * Martin County (disambiguation) * Martin Township (disambiguation) Antarctica * Martin Peninsula, Marie Byrd Land * Port Martin, Adelie Land * Point Martin, South Orkney Islands Austr ...
, 1999 – France, Switzerland and Germany were hit by severe storms Lothar (), and Martin (). 140 people were killed during the storms. Lothar and Martin together left 3.4 million customers in France without electricity. It was one of the greatest energy disruptions ever experienced by a modern developed country. The total costs resulting from both storms was estimated at almost 19.2 billion $US. * Kyrill, 2007 – Storm warnings were given for many countries in western, central and northern Europe with severe storm warnings for some areas. At least 53 people were killed in northern and central Europe, causing travel chaos across the region. * Xynthia, 2010 – A severe windstorm moved across the Canary Islands to Portugal and western and northern Spain, before moving on to hit south-western France. The highest gust speeds were recorded at Alto de Orduña, measured at . 50 people were reported to have died.At least 50 dead in western Europe storms
/ref> *
Storm David Storm David (also called Cyclone Friederike in Germany) was a compact but deadly European windstorm that heavily affected the British Isles, France, Benelux, Central Europe, Northern Italy, Poland and parts of Eastern Europe in early 2018 with ...
- 2018 - The storm caused an estimated €1.14 billion – €2.6 billion in damage. Wind gusts up to wreaked havoc in UK, The Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany. The death toll reached 15. * Storm Eunice - 2022 - The storm with wind gusts up to killed 17 people in Europe. The storm impacted the UK, The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Denmark, and Poland.


Most intense storms


See also

*
List of European windstorms The following is a list of notable European windstorms. Windstorms Before 1800 1800–1899 1900–1974 1975–1999 2000–2009 2010–2018 Since 2019 See also * European windstorm * Extratropical cyclone * T ...
*
Beaufort scale The Beaufort scale is an empirical measure that relates wind speed to observed conditions at sea or on land. Its full name is the Beaufort wind force scale. History The scale was devised in 1805 by the Irish hydrographer Francis Beaufort ...
*
Tropical cyclone effects in Europe The effects of tropical cyclones in Europe and their extratropical remnants include strong winds, heavy rainfall, and in rare instances, tornadoes or snowfall. Only two modern cyclones officially are being regarded as directly impacting mainland E ...
*
Nor'easter A nor'easter (also northeaster; see below), or an East Coast low is a synoptic-scale extratropical cyclone in the western North Atlantic Ocean. The name derives from the direction of the winds that blow from the northeast. The original use o ...
*
List of sting jet cyclones This is a list of documented and unconfirmed Sting jet A sting jet is a meteorological phenomenon which has been postulated to cause some of the most damaging winds in extratropical cyclones, developing according to the Shapiro-Keyser model (tho ...
*
List of severe weather phenomena Severe weather phenomena are weather conditions that are hazardous to human life and property. Severe weather can occur under a variety of situations, but three characteristics are generally needed: a temperature or moisture boundary, moisture, a ...


European windstorm seasons

* 2022–23 European windstorm season * 2021–22 European windstorm season * 2020–21 European windstorm season * 2019–20 European windstorm season *
2018–19 European windstorm season The 2018–2019 European windstorm season was the fourth instance of seasonal European windstorm naming in Europe. Most storms form between September and March. The first named storm, Ali, affected primarily the United Kingdom and Ireland on 19 ...
* 2017–18 European windstorm season * 2016–17 UK and Ireland windstorm season *
2015–16 UK and Ireland windstorm season The 2015–16 UK and Ireland windstorm season was the first instance of the United Kingdom's Met Office and Ireland's Met Éireann naming extratropical cyclones. The season started on 10 November with the naming of Storm Abigail and ended on 28 ...


References


External links


Met Office, Winter Storms

Met Office, University of Exeter & University of Reading: Extreme Wind Storms CatalogueFree University of Berlin low-pressure naming listsEuropean Windstorm Centre, An unofficial independent forecaster
{{DEFAULTSORT:European Windstorm Extratropical cyclones Types of cyclone Weather hazards Use British English from May 2013