Hurricane force winds in the Alps

[Greyowl]

One man has been killed in this report on BBC website.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/merseyside/7276268.stm

[SnowBear]

Thats a high end Cat4 hurricane? Hurricane Emma? Letter E this year for the North Atlantic is Edouard, not Emma. There is a storm to be named Emma this year but thats for Western Australia, not North Atlantic. Strange.

Maybe a wind gust of 150mph but by no means a hurricane in the true sense of the word, also tend to think it was caused by funneling due to local geography or tornadic activity rather than the storm itself being a "hurricane".

[Cat 5]

Apparantly the Meteorological Institute of the University of Berlin names high and low pressure systems (High = Male names & low systems = female names).

Emma was a low pressure system.

[Coast]

MUNICH (Thomson Financial)

German insurers and reinsurers say they cannot yet estimate the financial damages caused by winter storm Emma that swept across Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic on Saturday.

Spokespeople for Muenchener Rueckversicherungs AG, Allianz (nyse: AZ - news - people ) SE and Germany's Insurance Industry Association (GDV) said it is too early for damage appraisals.

'We are expecting a first damage appraisal by the end of the week', a spokeswoman for Allianz said.

She added that from today's point of view it seemed like the damage caused by Emma will be less severe than that caused by winter storm Kyrill which swept across Germany and other European countries in January 2007.

GDV estimates that damage caused by Kyrill in Germany last year cost the insurance industry about 2.4 bln eur.

The association plans to give a first estimate for costs due to storm Emma at the end of the week.

Emma killed at least 15 people and caused widespread damage and disruption on the weekend with wind gales of more than 200 kilometres (125 miles).

Strong winds caused damage and disruption in Germany, Austria, Poland and Czech Republic, says RMS

On Saturday, 1 March strong winds spread across several European countries causing damage and disruption in Germany, Austria, Poland and Czech Republic.

According to Risk Management Solutions, the winds were the result of Windstorm Emma – a deep low pressure system that tracked east across the North Sea on Saturday driving strong winds over the countries bordering the North Sea and eastern Europe.

The highest peak gusts were generally between 30-37 m/s (108-133 km/hr) in southeast Germany, eastern Czech Republic and coastal locations in Denmark and The Netherlands.

There are reports of scattered property damage with the worst of the damage reported in Bavaria, Germany and Austria. Power outages and travel disruptions also resulted from the storm and there has been a total of fourteen fatalities.

Source: www.globalreinsurance.com

European windstorm names are names assigned to European extratropical cyclones (and also anticyclones) by the Meteorology Institute at the Free University of Berlin. The practice was inspired by the U.S. National Weather Service's naming of hurricanes and typhoons, which began in World War II. In 1954 Karla Wege, a student at the Free University, suggested that all high- and low-pressure systems affecting Europe should be given names in order to make tracking the systems simpler. Lows were given female names and highs male names, and the names of notable systems were retired after each event.

In 1998 the system changed to alternating male and female names for highs and lows each year. In November 2002 the "Adopt-a-Vortex" scheme was started, which allows members of the public can buy names that will then be assigned to storms during each year.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/

And you too can have your name for a cyclone! LINKY

[SnowBear]

Ah ha, gusts of, not hurricane winds in the true sense of the word.

[Cookie]

didn't emma effect the uk at some point recently?