Scandinavia Hit Hard by Windstorm Dagmar AIR Reports

A report from catastrophe modeling firm AIR Worldwide notes that Windstorm Dagmar has moved across Russia north of St. Petersburg and begun to dissipate.

Its hurricane-force winds caused power outages, downed trees, landslides and other disruption across northern Scandinavia starting on Christmas Day through Tuesday, the 27th.

AIR explained that “Windstorm Dagmar developed almost suddenly, the product of a large temperature contrast between cold air moving south from Greenland/Arctic Norway and warm air moving north from the Azores/Iberia.,” augmented by a “rapid deepening of lows and an unusually powerful jet stream.” Dagmar sped almost due east from the Faroe Islands to Norway’s west coast north of Bergen and proceeded to cut across the country further east toward Sweden and Finland.

Some wind gusts reached 233 km/h [145.5 mph], according to Norway’s Meteorological Institute, which described Dagmar as possibly “the third worst windstorm to strike the country in the past 50 years.”

The Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute issued “Class 2” warnings for much of the country, which warn of weather that could pose a danger to the public, cause major damage to property, and cause major disruptions in essential services.

“Across northern Norway, Sweden, and central Finland people are digging out from Windstorm Dagmar’s snows and damage,” AIR continued. “Train service in northern Sweden, cancelled on Christmas Day, was expected to begin again this morning, even while several hundred thousand customers remained without power. Utility companies said some failures may last for days.”

AIR also noted that waves reportedly reached 20 meters (65 feet), halting ferry services along Norway’s west coast and the southbound operation of passenger ships from the northern city of Trondheim, leaving some 400 passengers stranded. However, Dagmar apparently did not affect oil and gas output from Norway’s offshore installations, according to Statoil officials.

“By late afternoon Tuesday, as many as 30,000 households in Norway remained without power and about 250,000 in Norway, Sweden, and Finland all together,” the report said. “With power out Monday, about 250 passengers were stranded on the main rail line between Oslo and Bergen, the country’s two largest cities. Also, several thousand residents in Årdal and Høyanger along the Sognefjord were cut off because of landslides, and in Høyanger and another town, Jølster, people were evacuated.

“Given the holiday and restricted transportation, damage assessment has only begun. Finance Norway, which coordinates claims from natural disasters in that country, said about 500 damage claims have already been filed, but expected that number to rise ‘significantly’ in the coming weeks.”

The group said it “expected claims will exceed the $46 million paid earlier this year following windstorm Berit. Since Dagmar covered the entire southern, more populated part of Finland, it may have caused even more extensive damage than in Norway, but the Federation of Finnish Financial Services was still compiling loss estimates as of mid-day Tuesday.”

AIR also pointed out that “in the past month three storms have struck northern Europe: Berit (also known as “Xaver”), which came on November 24th and 25th; Yoda, which hit Scotland just one day after Berit; and then Dagmar on the 26th of this month.

“At present, another storm is developing and is expected to strike Norway in about two days, on the evening of the 29th, very much where Windstorm Dagmar has just struck north of Bergen. Such clustering of winter storms is a well-known and common phenomenon for European extra-tropical cyclones, (or, wind storms). The new storm currently has a low minimum central pressure of 975mb, which, however, probably will weaken in the next days.

“Nonetheless, structures and trees just impacted by Windstorm Dagmar have been weakened and will be subject more damage when struck again so soon.”

Source: AIR Worldwide

Topics Catastrophe Natural Disasters Windstorm