Talk:European windstorm/Archive 1

Merge European windstorm names into European windstorm

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section. A summary of the conclusions reached follows.

The result was merge into DESTINATION PAGE. -- Pierre cb (talk) 03:57, 14 March 2010 (UTC)

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The article "European windstorm names" is a very short article quite redundant with "European windstorm". However, it has information that could be used as a section to explain the origin of the naming scheme used in Europe. Pierre cb (talk) 12:23, 12 March 2010 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Origin of term

Where does the term European windstorm come from ? is this a U.S. term? Strong winds are commonly refered to as Gales in the UK very strong storms are refered to as Hurricanes as they are atlantic cyclones —Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.205.250.210 (talk) 19:55, 1 June 2009 (UTC)

Why is the plural used in the title of this article? Michael Hardy 16:26, 26 Sep 2003 (UTC)

The plural redirects to the singular, so it doesn't really matter... Daedae 18:24, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

-- Estonia and northern Europe had also very strong storm from 08-09.01.2005. It caused pretty much damage in Estonia as it arrived here on 09.01 Tarmo Tanilsoo 4:43, 19 May 2005 (UTC)

I seem to remember the 1968 hurricane was called "Hurricane Queenie". Looking at the relevant article, they appear to have stopped using Q-names in the North Atlantic hurricane naming system before this. Can anyone clarify? PatGallacher 14:55, 20 October 2005 (UTC)

I guess so, so im putting up the Wikipedia Tropical Cyclones Banner just for that , because I think that some of the European Windstorms are hurricanes that went far north according to post storm data. E-Series 17:03, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

There was not a hurricane in 1968 called Queenie. If anything, it was a European Windstorm. For that reason, I removed the hurricane template. Hurricanehink 22:50, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

IMHO the storms should be listed cronologically reversed, latest first, since this is what most people find interesting Royk 14:03 1 January 2007 (CET)

Language problems

I have recently found that several languages, such German, Swedish and Finnish seem to have another meaning for hurricane. German and Swedish have Orkan and Finnish Hirmumyrsky. Local wikipedias say that it means wind above hurricane force. Estonian language equivalent for Hurricane(Orkaan) is also "wind above 32,7 m/s, also tropical cyclones in the Atlantics" according to Estonian Encyclopedia, and different dictionaries. So instead, "can be called hurricanes in certain languages". --Tarmo Tanilsoo 07:26, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

I think those are just misnomers in those other languages. Anyway, the word comes from the Mayan language so Europeans have been using it incorrectly. I think that sentence needs to point that out. I won't take it out, though. Good kitty 03:15, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

I wouldn't so much call them misnomers, considering Hurricane itself redirects to Tropical cyclone, as does typhoon. The god Huracan is simply the god of wind and storms, not necessarily tropical cyclones. We all imported the term differently. samwaltz 09:40, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

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1) Firstly, whose term is 'European Windstorm'? I have never heard or read the term before, and can only find reference to it on US websites. If it is indeed a purely US term, this needs to be pointed out, alongside whatever term is used in Europe.

2) Secondly, since the storm's damage takes place in Europe, it makes little sense listing the financial cost in US$. Unless of course this relates to 1), and the only available references are US websites. I can't check though, since that particular citation is a broken link anyway!

3) Some of the citations are broken links :)

Unfortunately, I can't see any way of addressing these three points without deleting large sections of the article, which I am unwilling to do as long as it linked in Current Events on the front page, so I will leave it for someone with a deeper understanding of the subject to either set me straight, or have a go at tidying it up.

Koolbreez 13:19, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

I would like to know as well, whose term is European windstorm. Looks like it was just made up to avoid word hurricane. I still can't understand why 'hurricane' was assigned in English only to tropical cyclones when extratropical cyclones can (rarely though) be same bad. --Tarmo Tanilsoo 07:29, 25 February 2007 (UTC)

My guess is that the British term is simply "Windstorm"; however in order to differentiate it from many other types of windstorm, the international community has decided to prepend it with "European". (Reread this sentence, replacing italicised terms with "American" and "football", and it will make a lot more sense.) samwaltz 09:01, 25 February 2007 (UTC)

A problem is however, that this type of windstorm is not at all limited to Europe. Similar systems - from a physical view - cause havoc every now and then along the American west and east coasts (The Nor'easters) as well as many other more or less maritime areas in the mid-latitudes. The type of storms that this article describes are those causes by deep mid-latitude low pressure systems with a diameter of a few hundreds to a few thousand kilometers. As said, not limited to Europe at all. So I have a problem with the name, too. --Pieter79 11:44, 13 November 2007 (UTC)

True, f.e Columbus_Day_Storm_of_1962 definitely fits in the same category. 91.155.158.189 (talk) 14:26, 26 November 2007 (UTC)

Nobody in Britain calls these things windstorms, apart possibly from professional meteorologists. We call them 'storms' or 'gales'. My suspicion is that windstorm is a literal translation of some German word which has then migrated into American English. There is generally a noticeable German slant to the article, which is odd since relatively few of these Atlantic storm systems affect Germany. There's no British practice of allocating standard names to storms either - see Great Storm of 1987. --Ef80 (talk) 22:23, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

Cyclone classification: "extratropical cyclone"?

The entry cyclone seems to describe the general class of similar phenomena including hurricanes, typhoons and "European windstorms". It seems to me that "European windstorms" must be extratropical cyclones. Boud (talk) 01:46, 2 March 2008 (UTC)

mph / kph

Can we standardise whether to use miles per hour or kilometres per hour, please? It's very confusing. Proto::► 14:10, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

How about knots? Tarmo Tanilsoo 18:09, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

This article reads like "British Storms". Way too much emphasis on occurences and effects in Britain.--Frank521 10:36, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

Number confusion

The section on the North Sea flood of 1953 states that 1.365 km² of land was flooded. I read this as just over a square kilometer being flooded, which is fairly minor and doesn't mesh with 9% of Dutch farmland being underwater. My guess is that the European system is being used, and 1,365 is actually meant, but I am not confident enough to actually change the number. That section seems to use a mix of periods and commas to separate numbers, which is confusing. I note that the main North Sea flood of 1953 shares this problem. - SimonP 16:15, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

Wind speeds

Highest recorderd peak winds have been comparable to 3 (maybe 4) on SSHS.

This ether needs a reference or a table of some kind because we really shouldn't be using terms like maybe about something that can be meassured. Anyone want to help me with that? EconomicsGuy (talk) 18:16, 15 February 2008 (UTC)

removed. I think continuous winds have never reached cat 4 winds, though gusts may do that. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 91.155.154.124 (talk) 04:14, 2 March 2008 (UTC)

Names given by Meteorologists

You will find some names in Liste von Wetterereignissen in Europa in German wikipedia. Regards, Simplicius 09:55, 5 March 2008 (UTC)

Missing some

This list is missing some:

• Bertha
• Maria
• Gordon
• --Yellow Evan (talk) 02:50, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

Foehn

Although Foehn can be very strong, I don't see how it could be considered in this article which only deal with synoptic extratropical cyclone affecting Europe ? Pierre cb (talk) 03:08, 29 May 2010 (UTC)

Severe European windstorms since 2000

'Gustav' removed from 2011, as no such named nor recognised 'European Windstorm' took place at that time. GEETD (talk) 10:16, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

I've just moved this new topic to the bottom. If GEETD is correct, then obviously both 2011 Scotland Windstorm neither deserves an article, nor inclusion here. Note that it is currently under discussion for deletion here: Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/2011 Scotland Windstorm. Tim PF (talk) 17:16, 9 February 2011 (UTC)