A high-quality dataset of windstorm information for use by the insurance and re-insurance industry at a range of scales within Europe.
WISC – Windstorm Information Service
- 22,980 synthetic event set
- Total windstorm risk per sector 1900-2015
- Part of the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S)
Applications
European Winter Windstorms are a major cause of losses to the insurance sector. The Wind Storm Information Service (WISC) provides windstorm data in the form of storm tracks and 4km footprints.
This high-quality dataset of windstorm information can be used by the insurance and re-insurance industry at a range of scales within Europe to better understand the levels of risk from wind storms and to address the increasing social and economic cost of severe windstorms. WISC is also useful for other sectors such as energy, transport and civil engineering.
UK expertise and service
Development of WISC was led by CGI, with partners Telespazio Vega UK, Met Office, KNMI (Dutch Met Office), IVM (Amsterdam), OASIS and Swiss Re.
WISC has generated a number of historic datasets that can be used to analyse the range and severity of windstorms in the past, their impact and decadal variability. WISC has produced key indicators such as number of European winter windstorms per year, average maximum wind speed of winter windstorms and average storm severity.