Impacted by coincident weather extremes: How clustered and compound extreme weather events imprint on our society now and in the future
In January 2012 strong Northerly winds, associated with two major storm systems, resulted in very high water levels near the coast of Groningen. Persistent rainfall had occurred over the area in the days prior to the event. This coincidence led to a hazardous situation, as it was not possible to drain the water into the Wadden Sea. However neither the rainfall nor the winds would have caused major problems had they occurred at different times. This “compound” event renewed discussion on the safety of our nation to flooding and rising sea levels. ICOWEX contributes to this challenging topic, by studying the persistence, clustering and compound nature of extreme events.
