WINDSURFER is a 3 year project that is bringing together eight leading research institutions across Europe to co-develop new methods, tools and assessments of extreme wind and wave risk with a focus on Insurance, Forestry and Energy

Extreme winds pose major risks to life, property and forestry, while extreme ocean waves can impact on offshore infrastructures and coastal communities.

To support the Insurance, Forestry and Energy sectors, WINDSURFER will develop:

New methods and tools
Impacts studies
Localised climate information

These outputs will help these sectors better quantify current extreme wind and wave risk and understand how it might change in the future.

Find out how WINDSURFER is addressing knowledge gaps by reading our case studies in insurance, forestry and offshore energy. WINDSURFER publications and deliverable reports are also available.

WINDSURFER News and Events

NORA3 Wave Reanalysis now available

The new NORA3 wave reanalysis from Met Norway is now available at:

https://thredds.met.no/thredds/projects/windsurfer.html

A paper describing NORA3 is in review (Haakenstad et al. 2021). The wind and wave reanalysis has been produced at much high spatial resolution than before (3km) covers the Nordic and North Seas and the North East Atlantic for the period (1979-2017).

For more details see our Deliverable 4.3 report

Climate Change and Storms in CMIP6

A new WINDSURFER paper analysing how Northern Hemisphere storms could change change in the future has been published. Harvey et al. (2020) looked at how storms are projected to change in the new CMIP6 climate models, which will be used in the next IPCC assessment report (AR6). The study found that winter storm frequency over Northwest Europe will increase in the future, but decrease over Scandinavia.

WINDSURFER at the CAT RISK London insurance event

Prof Len Shaffrey from WINDSURFER gave a keynote presentation to members of the insurance industry on the impact of climate change on European Windstorms at the CAT RISK Management and Modelling London event in March. Prof Shaffrey spoke about the latest results from the CMIP6 climate models which will be used to inform the Sixth IPCC assessment report on climate change.

For more details see https://catrisklondon.aventedge.com/

New study on the impact of climate change on European winds

A new study from the Finnish Meteorological Insititue (FMI) has been published in the Journal of Climate.

Projected Changes in European and North Atlantic Seasonal Wind Climate Derived from CMIP5 Simulations by Kimmo Ruosteenoja, Timo Vihma, and Ari Venäläinen

The study investigate the projections of climate change from 21 CMIP5 climate models finding substantial changes in high wind speeds. "In particular, in northern Europe in autumn and in parts of northwestern Europe in winter he frequency of strong westerly winds is projected to increase by up to 50%."

The paper is available here

https://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/10.1175/JCLI-D-19-0023.1

NORA10EI Wave Reanalysis now available

The new NORA10EI wave reanalysis from Met Norway is now available at:

http://thredds.met.no/thredds/projects/nora10ei.html

The wave reanalysis covers the Nordic and North Seas and the North East Atlantic for the period (1979-2017).

Engaging with the Oil and Gas Industry

The IOGP (The International Oil and Gas Producers Association) recently held a workshop on “Our future climate – understanding the spread of physical risk for the oil and gas industry”. The workshop brought together climate researchers and over 40 IOGP members from around the world. The aim of the workshop was to disseminate the latest research on how climate change may impact the oil and gas industry and what steps IOGP members can take to better understand these risks to assist with planning for adaptation to potential changes.

The ERA4CS WINDSURFER project was well represented at the workshop with Prof Oyvind Breivik from the Norwegian Meteorological Institute speaking on the impact of climate change on extreme waves and Prof Len Shaffrey from the National Centre for Atmospheric Science in the UK speaking on how the North Atlantic storms might change in the future.

WINDSURFER at EGU 2019

The WINDSURFER project will be presenting new results from the project at the 2019 European Geophysical Union General Assembly in Vienna, 7-12 April. In addition, the WINDSURFER project partner will be holding their mid-term meeting at EGU. If you're interested in finding out more about WINDSURFER then contact L.C.Shaffrey@reading.ac.uk.

WINDSURFER is funded through the ERA4CS ERA-NET and the European Commission