A tornado in Utrecht?

While the knowledge of the synoptic and mesoscale conditions which provide an environment for the development of severe convective events are crucial for forecasting such events, statistical analysis are helpful to raise a general awareness of the possibility of severe convective events. Such analyses was recently performed for Germany based on the European Severe Weather Database (ESWD). The objective of the ESWD is to collect and provide information on severe convective storm events over Europe. In total approx. 22 000 tornado reports are listed in the ESWD. Approx. 14 500 are confirmed reports since 2000.

How likely are tornadoes at a specific location? Using Utrecht – the hosting city of the European Conference on Severe Storms 2025 - as an example, the awareness of the possibility of tornadoes at a specific location is addressed.

The topic will be presented as poster in a way to allow the conference participants to actively contribute by sharing and testing their knowledge of tornado occurrence. Do the participants correctly guess whether tornadoes were observed in the surroundings of Utrecht in the past? Do the participants know how often tornadoes occur in their country of residence? How close to their home was a significant tornado observed in the past?