European Severe Storms Laboratory

The European Severe Storms Laboratory (ESSL) is a scientific organisation that conducts research on severe convective storms, tornadoes, intense precipitation events, and avalanches across Europe and the Mediterranean. It operates the widely consulted European Severe Weather Database (ESWD).

"ESSL" redirects here. For other uses, see ESSL (disambiguation).
European Severe Storms Laboratory
AbbreviationESSL
PredecessorTorDACH
Formation12 August 2006
TypeNGO
Purposeadvance research on extreme weather events on a European level
Location
  • c/o DLR, Münchener Str. 20, 82234 Wessling, Germany
Region served
Europe
Official language
English
Director
Pieter Groenemeijer
Treasurer and Director of Operations
Alois M. Holzer
Main organ
General Assembly
WebsiteESSL

History and purpose of the ESSL

The European Severe Storms Laboratory started as an informal network of European scientists with the goal to advance research on severe convective storms and extreme weather events on a European level. It was initiated in 2002 by Nikolai Dotzek and became a non-profit organization with charitable status in 2006.[1][2]

The ESSL focuses on research questions concerning convective storms and other extreme weather phenomena which can be treated more efficiently on a pan-European scale.[3] It can be seen as roughly the European counterpart to the US's National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL). Some members of ESSL participate in the European Storm Forecast Experiment (ESTOFEX) which issues daily forecasts of severe convective storms. It can be seen as the operational counterpart to the US Storm Prediction Center (SPC) akin to ESSL being the research counterpart to NSSL, although both European organizations currently lack the institutional support enjoyed by the US organisations which are government entities.

The statutory purposes of the ESSL are:

  • to advance research on severe convective storms and extreme weather events on a European level
  • to operate and extend the European Severe Weather Database (ESWD)
  • to support or organize the European Conferences on Severe Storms

European Severe Weather Database

The European Severe Weather Database (ESWD) collects and verifies reports on dust, sand- or steam devils, tornadoes, gustnadoes, large hail, heavy rain and snowfall, severe wind gusts, damaging lightning strikes and avalanches all over Europe and around the Mediterranean. The ESWD is the most important database for such events in Europe.[4] Everyone is welcome to report extreme weather observations. Each report undergoes a quality control and each event is flagged either as received (QC0), plausibility checked (QC0+), report confirmed by other observer (QC1) or as fully verified by trusted source (QC2).[5]

European Conference on Severe Storms

The European Conference on Severe Storms (ECSS) is a conference series organized by the ESSL since 2002 and taking place biannually.[6] During the ECSS two prices are offered:

  • The Heino-Tooming-Award is named after the meteorologist Heino Tooming († 2004) and awards excellent scientific work on severe storms in European collaborations.
  • The Nikolai Dotzek Award is named after meteorologist Nikolai Dotzek and honors distinguished scientific individual performance or lifetime achievement.[7][8]

Automatic Severe Weather Prediction (AR-CHARMO)

On july 27, 2022, ESSL launched a site with experimental forecasts of lightning and hail for Europe based on post-processed weather model data.[9][10]

Organisation

The ESSL has two headquarters, one in Weßling close to Munich in Germany, and the other Wiener Neustadt in Austria. Both the German and the Austrian branch work together closely as formulated in a Memorandum of Understanding in 2012, the management boards are nearly identical.[11]

Institutional members of the general assembly are national weather services such as the German DWD and the ZAMG, as well as meteorological research institutes like Research Center for Environmental Changes of the Academia Sinica in Taiwan or the German Aerospace Center’s Institute of Planetary Research DLR.[7] Other members of the general assembly are scientists interested in severe weather research from all over the world.[12]

See also

References
  1. Dotzek, Nikolai; Groenemeijer, Pieter; Feuerstein, Bernold; Holzer, Alois M. (2009). "Overview of ESSL's severe convective storms research using the European Severe Weather Database ESWD" (PDF). Atmospheric Research. 93 (1–3): 575–86. Bibcode:2009AtmRe..93..575D. doi:10.1016/j.atmosres.2008.10.020. INIST:21805181.
  2. "NSSL Provides Model for New European Severe Storms Lab". NOAA. Archived from the original on May 7, 2009. Retrieved 2009-10-27.
  3. "European Severe Storms Laboratory" (PDF). European Severe Storms Laboratory. Retrieved 2009-10-27.
  4. "Data Sources for Significant Weather Events". German Meteorological Service (DWD).
  5. "ESWD Quality Control | European Severe Storms Laboratory".
  6. "European Conferences on Severe Storms (ECSS)". European Severe Storms Laboratory (ESSL).
  7. "European Severe Storms Laboratory | Severe Weather research in Europe".
  8. "Awards | European Severe Storms Laboratory".
  9. https://twitter.com/essl_ecss/status/1552348810722115587?s=46&t=2Bx7JX7Iwsph41uHX5rTnQ
  10. http://stormforecast.eu/
  11. "ESSL Organigramm" (PDF).
  12. ESSL annual report 2012 with member list
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