Sting jets in extratropical cyclones, from the Great Storm to Eunice and Ciarán: observed cases, dynamics and climatology.  

Speaker: Ambrogio Volonté    

Chair(S): OSCAR MARTINEZ-ALVARADO AND ANDREA DITTUS

wednesday December 13th 2023, 13:00

Sting jets are coherent airflows that form in some intense extratropical cyclones (aka “windstorms”) and accelerate while descending towards the surface. In such windstorms multiple airstreams have the potential for severe high-impact winds. However,  in contrast to the major long-lived cyclone wind jets, sting jets can lead to regions of exceptionally strong near-surface winds, and particularly damaging gusts, over just a few hours and with much smaller wind “footprints”. Their existence was first acknowledged by studying the Great October Storm of 1987 and since then sting jets have been identified in several of the most damaging windstorms impacting northwest Europe, including Eunice and (likely) Ciarán. In this talk I will present a few notable cases of sting-jet windstorms, briefly illustrate their dynamics and then present the ongoing work towards the first global climatology of sting jets in extratropical cyclones.   

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