Revision submitted to Atmos. Res., Manuscript No. ATMOSRES-D-07-00255R1 Overview of ESSL’s severe convective storms research using the European Severe Weather Database ESWD Nikolai Dotzek1,2,*, Pieter Groenemeijer3,1, Bernold Feuerstein4,1, and Alois M. Holzer5,1 1 European Severe Storms Laboratory (ESSL), Münchner Str. 20, 82234 Wessling, Germany 2 Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR) - Institut für Physik der Atmosphäre, Oberpfaffenhofen, 82234 Wessling, Germany 3 Institut für Meteorologie und Klimaforschung, Forschungszentrum/Universität Karlsruhe, Postfach 3640, 76021 Karlsruhe, Germany 4 Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, Saupfercheckweg 1, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany 5 HD1 Weather Forecasting Department, ORF Austrian Broadcasting Corporation, Argentinierstr. 30a, 1040 Wien, Austria Special Issue: Proc. 4th European Conf. on Severe Storms Received 2 December 2007, revised 12 October 2008 * Corresponding Author: Dr. Nikolai Dotzek, European Severe Storms Laboratory (ESSL), c/o DLR-IPA, Münchner Str. 20, 82234 Wessling, Germany. Tel: +49-8153-28-1845, Fax: +49-8153-28-1841, eMail:
[email protected], http://essl.org/people/dotzek/ 1 1 Abstract 2 3 Severe thunderstorms constitute a major weather hazard in Europe, with an 4 estimated total damage of 5-8 billion euros each year nowadays. Even 5 though there is an upward trend in damage due to increases in vulnerability 6 and possibly also due to climate change impacts, a pan-European database 7 of severe thunderstorm reports in a homogeneous data format did not exist 8 until a few years ago. The development of this European Severe Weather 9 Database (ESWD) provided the final impetus for the establishment of the 10 European Severe Storms Laboratory (ESSL) as a non-profit research 11 organisation in 2006, after having started as an informal network in 2002.