Database of windstorm impacts in Europe, 1950–2020

Extreme windstorms are among the most destructive and costly extreme weather phenomena in the European region. Extreme wind speeds can directly damage or destroy structures like power pylons. Indirect damages are caused by falling trees, which can break power lines or block roads and railways. Assessing long-term trends in windstorm losses and attributing them to climatic and socio-economic changes requires comprehensive and systematic collection of historical information. Here, we present windstorm impact data for Europe that is part of the HANZE (Historical Analysis of Natural HaZards) database.

The dataset covers windstorms that have occurred in 42 European countries between 1950 and 2020. The data was obtained by extensive data-collection from more than 800 sources ranging from news reports through government databases to scientific papers. The dataset includes 1358 events characterized by at least one impact statistic: area affected (forest felled by wind), fatalities, persons affected (loss of electricity) or economic loss. Economic losses are presented both in the original currencies and price levels as well as inflation and exchange-rate adjusted to the 2020 value of the euro. The spatial footprint of affected areas is consistently recorded using subnational units corresponding, to the European Union’s Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS), level 2 and 3. Daily start and end dates, information on causes of the event, notes on data quality issues or associated non-wind impacts, and full bibliography of each record supplement the dataset. The database can be viewed, filtered and visualized online: https://naturalhazards.eu. The dataset is designed to be complementary to HANZE-Exposure, a high-resolution model of historical exposure changes (such as population and asset value), and be easily usable in statistical and spatial analyses, including multi-hazard studies.