What is the trend in extreme wind speeds across Europe?

Key messages

(17 Nov 2014)

• Storm location, frequency and intensity show considerable decadal variability across Europe over the past century, such that no long-term trends are apparent.
• Recent studies on changes in winter storm tracks generally project an eastward extension of the North Atlantic storm track towards central Europe and the British isles, but this finding is not yet robust.

• Climate change simulations show diverging projections on changes in the number of winter storms across Europe. However, almost all studies agree that storm intensities will increase in the future for the North Atlantic, northern, northwestern and central Europe.

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