31 August – 2 September 2015
University of Bern, Switzerland
A major source of natural hazards, mid-latitude storms have devastating socio-economic impacts. Yet the processes involved in their intensification and generation of disastrous impacts such as flooding are not fully understood. Also, the behaviour of mid-latitude storms and extreme events under changing climate conditions is highly debated. Thus, predictability of such events is a key research topic.
Over the past 15 years, severe storms hit Europe with substantial economic damage. Lothar and Martin (1999), Kyrill (2007), and Xynthia (2010) are the unforgotten names of storms that caused extensive and expensive damage.
Therefore, the aim of the workshop is to bring together scientists from dynamical meteorology and climatology as well as stakeholders from the insurance and engineering industries so that they can share recent research ideas.
The workshop is a continuation of a series of European storm workshops which started in 2011. It is a unique opportunity to combine the strong Swiss research in this field with international research activity and the experience of insurance experts and engineering consultants, both strong pillars of the Swiss economy.
The workshop further facilitates the cooperation between science and industry and will help in the design of end-to-end projects, i.e., from scientific understanding to implementation in practice.
The conference will cover the following topics:
We plan to have about 20 invited speakers covering the key themes listed above. In addition, there will be ample time for contributed talks and poster sessions. Moreover, to stimulate discussion there will be time for breakout group work.
