ABSTRACT
Of all the hazards that the climate can throw at us, none equals the power of an angry storm. Despite the fact that there is much greater uncertainty about future changes in wind speed and direction, recent studies have demonstrated that the UK is becoming windier and storm incidents are increasing. This reflects a pattern throughout the world, in which not only are hurricanes and storms increasing in number and intensity but storm seasons are extending into months where storms were previously unrecorded. Worldwide more than a third of all natural disasters are caused by windstorms in an average year, causing around a third of all fatalities and economic losses from natural disasters. Munich Re claimed that ‘The evidence points to critical extreme wind speeds and precipitation being exceeded with increasing frequency, so that for this reason alone there will inevitably be a stark increase in the loss burdens as well.’ 1
