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th 5 European Conference on Severe Storms 12 - 16 October 2009 - Landshut - GERMANY ECSS 2009 Abstracts by session ECSS 2009 - 5th European Conference on Severe Storms 12-16 October 2009 - Landshut – GERMANY List of the abstract accepted for presentation at the conference: O – Oral presentation P – Poster presentation Session 04: Climate change impacts on sever storms, development of adaptation concepts Page Type Abstract Title Author(s) Significant Increases in Frequencies and Intensities of 93 O Weather Related Catastrophes – what is the Role of P. Höppe Climate Change? Extreme Precipitation: Current Forecast Ability and A. Champion, K. Hodges, L. 95 O Climate Change Bengtsson High-resolution modeling of the effects of anthropogenic J. Trapp, E. D. Robinson, M. E. O climate change on severe convective storms Baldwin, N. S. Diffenbaugh K.Riemann-Campe, R. Blender, 97 O Future global distributions of CAPE and CIN N. Dotzek, K. Fraedrich, F. Lunkeit Severe hail frequency over Ontario, Canada: recent trend O Z. Cao and variability 99 P Hailpad data analysis for continental part of Croatia D. Pocakal RegioExAKT - Regional Risk of Convective Extreme N. Dotzek, the RegioExAKT 101 P Weather Events: User-oriented Concepts for Trend consortium Assessment and Adaptation Climate change impacts on severe convective storms over 103 P J. Sander, N. Dotzek Europe Wind loads and climate change – significance of gust fronts P M. Kasperski, E. Agu, N. Aylanc in the structural design Extreme weather events in southern Germany – A. Matthies, G. C. Leckebusch, T. 105 P Climatological risk and development of a large-scale Schartner, J. Sander, P. Névir, U. identification procedure Ulbrich Study of weather change due to loss of Sunderban Delta P. Chatterjee, U. K. De, D. P Region Pradhan Influence of sounding derived parameters on the strength of 107 P S. Grünwald, H. E. Brooks tornadoes in Europe and the USA from reanalysis data 91 92 5th European Conference on Severe Storms 12 - 16 October 2009 - Landshut - GERMANY SIGNIFICANT INCREASES IN FREQUENCIES AND INTENSITIES OF WEATHER RELATED CATASTROPHES – WHAT IS THE ROLE OF CLIMATE CHANGE? Peter Hoeppe Munich Re, 80791 Munich, GERMANY, [email protected] As extreme weather events affect the core business exposure levels and the fact that modern technologies are of insurance this industry has quite early addressed potential more vulnerable to losses. The state of Florida in the USA, effects of global warming on natural catastrophe hazards. which has always had a high hurricane exposure, is a good Today climate change is regarded as one of the largest risks illustration of the way that socioeconomic factors can act as for insurance industry. Munich Re's experts have been natural catastrophe loss drivers. The population there has researching loss events caused by natural hazards around the grown from three million in 1950 to the current 19 million. globe for over 35 years. These losses are documented in the NatCatSERVICE database currently documenting more than As the rise in the number of natural catastrophes is 26,000 single events. largely attributable to weather-related events like windstorms and floods (figure 1), with no similarly strong In recent years we have seen many natural increase in geophysical events such as earthquakes, catastrophes with records in intensities and losses caused by tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions, there is some justification them such as: in assuming that anthropogenic changes in the atmosphere, and climate change in particular, play a decisive role. There The hundred-year flood in the Elbe region in has been more and more evidence to support this hypothesis Germany in the summer of 2002 in recent years. The fourth status report of the The 450-year event of the hot summer of 2003, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC 2007) which caused more than 70,000 heat fatalities in regards the link between global warming and the greater Europe frequency and intensity of extreme weather events as The largest ever recorded number of tropical significant. The report finds, with more than 66% cyclones (28) and hurricanes (15) in a single North probability, e.g. that climate change already produces more Atlantic season in 2005, with the strongest (Wilma – heat waves, heavy precipitation, drought and intense tropical core pressure: storms and that such effects will be growing in the future. 882 hPa), fourth strongest (Rita), and sixth strongest (Katrina) hurricanes on record. Hurricane Katrina, the costliest single event of all times, with economic losses of over US$ 125bn and insured losses of approximately US$ 60bn; In October 2005, Hurricane Vince formed close to Madeira, subsequently reaching the northernmost and easternmost point of any tropical cyclone. Winter storm Kyrill (January 2007) has caused the second largest losses in Europe caused by a winter storm Largest losses ever caused by flooding in the UK in June/July, 2007. The analyses of the NatCatSERVICE data clearly show a dramatic increase in the number of natural FIG. 1: Annual numbers and trend lines of loss relevant natural catastrophes around the globe, with ever growing losses. The events broken down to the different perils (Source: NatCatSERVICE, Munich Re) trend curve indicating the number of great natural catastrophes worldwide (involving thousands of fatalities, billion-dollar losses) reveals an increase from about three The rise in global average temperatures significantly per year at the beginning of the 1950s to around eight at the increases the probability of record temperatures. Higher present time. temperatures also enable air to hold more water vapour, thus increasing the precipitation potential. Combined with more Economic and insured losses resulting from great pronounced convection processes, in which warm air rises to weather disasters have risen sharply. In 2005, a record year, form clouds, this results in more frequent and more extreme economic losses were as high as nearly US$ 180bn and intense precipitation events. Already today such events are insured losses around US$ 90bn. responsible for a large proportion of flood losses. The main reasons for the sharp increase in losses from weather-related catastrophes are population growth, the settlement and industrialisation of regions with high 93 5th European Conference on Severe Storms 12 - 16 October 2009 - Landshut - GERMANY Munich Re’s Geo Risks Research has undertaken hurricane frequency analyses for the events of the past decades, which also take into account natural climate cycles (the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation, AMO). The results indicate, that the higher frequency and intensity of Atlantic tropical cyclones in recent years could be due both to the natural cycle (the current warm phase, which started in 1995) and global warming. Now that a number of changes have already happened and some of the predictions for the coming decades have already been seen, the key issue is no longer if and when there will be conclusive proof of anthropogenic climate change. The crux of the matter is whether the existing climate data and climate models can provide sufficient pointers for us to estimate future changes with reasonable accuracy and formulate adaptation and prevention strategies in good time. The insurance industry’s natural catastrophe risk models have already been adjusted in the light of the latest findings. For instance, they now incorporate the increased hurricane hazard due to higher sea surface temperatures that will remain above the long-term average due to the ongoing cyclical warm phase in the North Atlantic and the continuous warming caused by anthropogenic climate change. 94 5h European Conference on Severe Storms 12 - 16 October 2009 - Landshut - GERMANY EXTREME PRECIPITATION: CURRENT FORECAST ABILITY AND CLIMATE CHANGE Adrian J. Champion, Kevin I. Hodges, Lennart O. Bengtsson NCEO National Centre for Earth Observation, ESSC, The University of Reading, Harry Pitt Building, 3 Earley Gate, Whiteknights, PO Box 328, Reading, RG6 6AL, UK, [email protected] (Dated: 15 September 2009) I. INTRODUCTION Figure 2 shows the radar imagery at the same time, Extreme precipitation events are a major cause of which has a resolution of 1km, from the Met Office flooding events, such as the 2007 summer floods in the UK NIMROD radar network. Figure 1 shows that the LAM and other flooding events in Western Europe. Such events picks up the large scale seen in the radar imagery, but does are difficult to forecast due to the convective scale processes not pick up the small scale, or the intensity seen in the radar embedded within the synoptic scale. imagery. The effect of climate change of such events also needs to be addressed. In a warmer climate, the frequency and intensity of extreme events are projected to increase. If similar synoptic conditions as seen in 2007 over the UK are experienced in a future climate, how extreme will the precipitation be, and will such conditions become more frequent? This research uses a Limited Area Model (LAM) of the UK Met Office’s Unified Model at a 12km resolution, to investigate the current forecast ability of extreme precipitation. The ECHAM5 Global Climate Model (GCM) at high resolution (T213/T319) is also used to investigate the change in Atlantic storm tracks in a warmer climate. II. CURRENT FORECAST ABILITIES The UK floods experienced during the summer of 2007 were caused by extreme rainfall from local convective storms. These storms were persistent over the UK due to the presence of a stationary cut-off low that remained over the UK for several days, bringing a constant moisture supply to the convective storms (Blackburn, 2008). The small scale of the convective systems, embedded FIG. 2: UK Met Office C-band rainfall radar data, for use with the within the synoptic scale system, meant it was very difficult NIMROD automated weather analysis and nowcasting system, for for the forecast model, which at the time had a resolution of the 20th July 2007 at 1400.