Storm Xaver

A large and violent cyclonic storm hit the North Sea region and several adjacent countries on 5 December 2013. Problems were caused both by the high wind speeds and the related storm surge. The surge reached 6 metres in Hamburg for example and was the highest along the England east-coast for 60 years. In the aftermaths of the cyclone a blizzard hit Sweden. The storm system was named Xaver by Berlin's Free University; other names assigned elsewhere include Bodil, Sven and St. Nicholas (Hewson et al., 2014). The cyclone developed around 00 UTC on 4 December northeast of Newfoundland and it was situated between converging northerly and southerly airstreams. Due to the westerly wind jet accelerated by the convergence, the cyclone moved to northeast and east, deepening explosively. It had an intense meso-vortex hanging back to west, which enhanced the strong wind (see Figure 1). The cyclone was presented in the operational forecasts 8-9 days before the event and the forecasts indicated the very strong wind gust 3-4 days in advance. (Although some strength overestimation over Germany as well as timing error in surface pressure were concluded.)