https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_24
2009 – Cyclone Klaus makes landfall near Bordeaux, France, causing 26 deaths as well as extensive disruptions to public transport and power supplies.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclone_Klaus
Cyclone Klaus[2] was a European windstorm or cyclone which made landfall over large parts of central and southern France, Spain and parts of Italy in January 2009. The storm was the most damaging since Lothar and Martin in December 1999.[3] The storm caused widespread damage across France and Spain, especially in northern Spain.
The storm caused twenty-six fatalities,[1] as well as extensive disruptions to public transport and power supplies, with approximately 1.7 million homes in southwest France and tens of thousands of homes in Spain experiencing power cuts. Severe damage to property and major forest damage was caused.[4] Peak gusts were over 200 km/h; sustained winds over 170 km/h (110 mph) were observed, which are hurricane-force winds.
Some reports called it the storm of the decade; BBC meteorologist Alex Deakin said, "Saturday's storm is being described as the most damaging since that of December 1999 which killed 88 people."
After being an operational meteorologist/atmospheric scientist for 36 years, I just got a big education on European Wind(Winter) storms, something one might have thought I'd have known much more about.
On average, these storms cause economic damage of around €1.9 billion per year, and insurance losses of €1.4 billion per year (1990–1998). They rank as the second highest cause of global natural catastrophe insurance loss (after U.S. hurricanes).....Wow!
Up to the second half of the 19th century, European windstorms were named after the person who spotted them.[citation needed] Usually, they would be named either by the year, the date, the Saint's day of their occurrence[5] or any other way that made them commonly known.
However, a storm may still be named differently in different countries. For instance, the Norwegian weather service also names independently notable storms that affect Norway,[6] which can result in multiple names being used in different countries they affect,
An alternative Scottish naming system arose in 2011 via social media/Twitter which resulted in the humorous naming of Hurricane Bawbag[7][8][9] and Hurricane Fannybaws.
During 1954, Karla Wege, a student at the Free University of Berlin's meteorological institute suggested that names should be assigned to all areas of low and high pressure that influenced the weather of Central Europe.[17] The university subsequently started to name every area of high or low pressure within its weather forecasts, from a list of 260 male and 260 female names submitted by its students.[17][18] The female names were assigned to areas of low pressure while male names were assigned to areas of high pressure.[17][18] The names were subsequently exclusively used by Berlin's media until February 1990, after which the German media started to commonly use the names, however, they were not officially approved by the German Meteorological Service Deutscher Wetterdienst.[17][19] The DWD subsequently banned the usage of the names by their offices during July 1991, after complaints had poured in about the naming system.[18] However, the order was leaked to the German press agency, Deutsche Presse-Agentur, who ran it as its lead weather story.[18] Germany's ZDF television channel subsequently ran a phone in poll on 17 July 1991 and claimed that 72% of the 40,000 responses favored keeping the names.[18] This made the DWD pause and think about the naming system and these days the DWD accept the naming system and request that it is maintained.[18][19]
During 1998 a debate started about if it was discrimination to name areas of high pressure with male names and the areas of low pressure with female names.[17] The issue was subsequently resolved by alternating male and female names each year.[17] In November 2002 the "Adopt-a-Vortex" scheme began, which allows members of the public or companies to buy naming rights for a letter chosen by the buyer that are then assigned alphabetically to high and low pressure areas in Europe during each year.[20] The naming comes with the slim chance that the system will be notable. The money raised by this is used by the meteorology department to maintain weather observations at the Free University.[4]
2003 – The United States Department of Homeland Security officially begins operation.
I was happy to see this come about. At last a group that would coordinate data from all the other alphabet agencies.
Little did I know that it would be just another clog in the machinery.
Thanks Carl!