Storm "Kyrill" causes severe damages in Europe
During the night thursday to friday, January 18th to 19th, the storm "Kyrill" hit large parts of Germany, causing severe damages. Large parts of Europe were also affected. According to reports of the German Weather Service DWD (www.dwd.de), in terms of extension, Kyrill was comparable to the storm "Jeanette" which occurred in October 2002. Events of this size can be anticipated to occur every 10 to 20 years.
According to statements of NLWKN (www.nlwkn.de), at the coast, Kyrill led to lower water levels than predicted, which is traced back to the fact that the storm moved faster than expected. By comparison, in autumn of last year, storm Britta partly caused new record water levels at the North Sea coast of Lower Saxony. More detailed information can be obtained from the announcements of NLWKN.
Considering a longer period, the storm activity has been consistently fluctuating in Europe. After years and decades of relative calmness, periods of increased storm activity followed and vice versa. In particular, the last few years were characterized by a relatively low storm activity. A reconstruction of the past 100 years in Northern Europe you can find 
here. Regarding the future, various climatic model calculations show differences in the details. At large, a modest increase in storm activity can be anticipated for the next 100 years.
At the Institute for Coastal Research at the GKSS Research Center Geesthacht, scientists address these types of extreme weather events. With the help of scenarios and models, amongst other things, the coastal researchers calculate the likelihood of future storm surges. In addition, the technique WISAR (Wind Fields from SAR), developed at GKSS, allows for a detailed look at the distribution of wind within a storm or hurricane. This method calculates high-resolution wind fields over the ocean, using satellite-based radar systems. Thus, the scientists at Geesthacht were able to visualize Kyrill.
Wind field of storm Kyrill over the North and Baltic Sea on January 18, 2007 at 10pm. At that time, Kyrill was raging particularly at the Southern Baltic Sea with wind speeds of more than 30 m/s (110 km/h). The wind field was calculated using the technique WISAR (Wind Fields from SAR), developed at GKSS, from synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data provided by the European satellite ENVISAT.
See how WISAR registered the hurricane Katrina and get more information about the technique WISAR is based on:
http://www.gkss.de/pages.php?page=08_2005.html&language=d&version=g (in German only)
http://w3g.gkss.de/G/gms_en.html/KSD_WiSAR_op.html
Furthermore, you can find information on the future developments of storm surges:
http://www.gkss.de/pages.php?page=10_2005.html&language=d&version=g (in German only)
For further information on this topic, please contact the office for press and public relations at the GKSS Research Center Geesthacht:
torsten.fischer@gkss.de
Phone: +49 (0)4152 87 1677
