Legally or socially, how is "extreme weather" defined in your country? What weather is bad enough to disrupt society?
18 comments
Red warning. It signifies extremely severe weather conditions that pose a significant risk to life and property over a wide area. People are advised to take exceptional safety measures, stay indoors, and follow instructions from authorities. Schools shut down etc.
Heavy snow is another one, but it rarely happens anymore because of climate change, atleast in my part of the country.
We don’t have the severe weather like for instance in the USA and almost never power outages during such weather, but sometimes during a heavy thunderstorm hail as big as dove eggs, severe rain fall and regional floods. Not in my part of the Netherlands, but further south where the temperatures are higher, the occasional tornado (class 1) and water spout. Because of global warming the storms are getting more severe though. No hurricanes. Sometimes hurricane class.
When I was a kid, -25 in winter was normal for January or February. Not for the whole month, but we regularly experienced such temperatures.
Currently -20 in winter is considered extremely cold, – 15 is exceptionally cold.
In England, Low/Medium/High thresholds for heat alerts are max daytime temperatures of 28°/32°/40° in London and 27°/30°/38° in the rest of the country.
For cold alerts, across all of England, Low is average (not max or min) temperatures below 2° for 48 hours, Medium is average temperatures below 2° for five days or below 0° for 48 hours, High is average temperatures below 0° for for five days or below -2° for 48 hours.
In Scotland, anything over 15C is considered a danger to life.
We’re ginger, pale, and some have freckles; the sun is our natural enemy.
Any other weather is to be expected: rain, wind, snow and ice, are ignored as “the usual”.
The most disruptive weather pattern which is semi- regularly occurring in Czechia is flooding. The red warning is in this case issued if the floodwaters are expected to reach high enough to require evacuations of low-lying houses. For each measuring station along Czech rivers, there are specific water flow rates defined which will cause the warning to be issued for their area if exceeded.
For temperatures, red warning means that the maximum temperatures will rise over 37°C or minimum temperatures will fall under -24°C, and for winds, if the speeds exceed 30 m/s in lowlands or 45 m/s in the mountains.
honestly, nothing
like we have the occasional once in a 100 year local floods or mudstreams but otherwise nothing
there’s no regular phenomenom that disrupts civil live, sure people will say that first frost can make the road slippy and it does but that’s expected, people will complain that the trains get to a halt because of leaves falling but that’s also expected
on the average, we simply **can** keep on going and I think that’s our greatest strength
extreme weather would be a sudden cold so the salt-sprayers haven’t had a chance to go out or so warm that the civil brigade has to go out and distribute water to the elderly and the fire brigade is on high alert for forest fires if that answers your question
in Ukraine it was –20 / +30, which meant no school days. now +30 is ignored bc heatwaves and –20 is rare
In Finland +27C during summer gives warning about “potentially dangerous heat”
+30C and they tell people to avoid being outside.
But aparrently +35C is limit for “Extreme heat warning”
-20C gives warning about cold
-25C is severe cold
-35C is extreme cold warning.
In Sweden we have the national “Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute”, SMHI for short. They give out 3 levels of warnings:
Yellow: Something can happen that causes damage to property, like strong winds or dry weather causing increased risks of fires.
Orange: Same as above but the weather may cause SERIOUS damage.
Red: Prepare yourself, stay inside, avoid windows. Serious damage is unavoidable. All shops and services will close.
We don’t have any warnings for low temperatures. Since we always have low temperature every winter people are expected to dress properly. One exception is low temperature combined with strong winds. The wind will make the actual temperature much lower than what the thermometer says. So you could be fooled and dress to lightly. But that is only a yellow warning.
These three levels are not based on fixed temperatures or wind speed but rather on the consequences the weather will have on people and environment.
Based on “red levels of danger” issued by belarusian meteorological institution over the past few years
– a very high probability of wildfires (prolonged dry weather, especially combined with winds or high temperatures)
– maximal temps reaching 35°C
– strong winds (over 25 meters per second)
– freezing rains, thick ice layers forming over everything
Very low temps didn’t seem to warrant a red level yet I remember schools being cancelled in milder western regions of the country when lows of -25°C were forecasted
It really depends a lot on the region in the Uk. The definition of extreme depends basically in terms of what your usual weather is in an average year.
I’m from Northern Ireland but lived in southern England and London too.
I’ll just list the parameters based on my anecdotal experience.
Northern Ireland:
– Extreme heat: anything above 30c. We get 27/28c most years but 30c only occurs every couple of years.
– Extreme cold: anything below about -10c/-15c.
– Extreme snow: we get snow every year (but it only lasts a few days), for us anything over about six-seven inches is veering on extreme though this does depend on your elevation.
– Extreme wind: we are a windy country, so anything above 80mph would be extreme.
London:
– Extreme heat: anything above 35c. 30-32c occurs every summer so this wouldn’t draw attention. I think a year or so ago it was 32c in September.
– Extreme cold: anything below -6c/-7c. London doesn’t go below 0c that often.
– Extreme snow: some years it doesn’t snow in London at all. Usually they get a skiff of a covering that melts quickly. In terms of extreme I would say maybe 3-4 inches.
– Extreme wind: 60mph. It’s not often windy in London and I used to receive weather warnings for 50mph winds whilst in NI people would laugh at that.
18 comments
Red warning. It signifies extremely severe weather conditions that pose a significant risk to life and property over a wide area. People are advised to take exceptional safety measures, stay indoors, and follow instructions from authorities. Schools shut down etc.
[European windstorms](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_windstorm) (“Orkan” in german) is probably the most common one here, and really the only thing that occurs regularly.
Heavy snow is another one, but it rarely happens anymore because of climate change, atleast in my part of the country.
We don’t have the severe weather like for instance in the USA and almost never power outages during such weather, but sometimes during a heavy thunderstorm hail as big as dove eggs, severe rain fall and regional floods. Not in my part of the Netherlands, but further south where the temperatures are higher, the occasional tornado (class 1) and water spout. Because of global warming the storms are getting more severe though. No hurricanes. Sometimes hurricane class.
When I was a kid, -25 in winter was normal for January or February. Not for the whole month, but we regularly experienced such temperatures.
Currently -20 in winter is considered extremely cold, – 15 is exceptionally cold.
Weather that is supposed to happen once every 10 years, or rare weather that is only occuring every 10.000 years. [according to our weather institute ](https://www.knmi.nl/kennis-en-datacentrum/uitleg/extreem-weer)
During winter it’s ”red alarm” if it’s expected to go below -5.
During summer it’s ”red alarm” if it’s expected to go above +35
Croatia, Zagreb at least
Hurricane, snowstorms, heatwave (30+ celsius) or flooding
Doesnt get too extreme in Denmark tbh but we have had more flooding than usual recently
Heat wave, meaning at least 3 consecutive nights above 21°C and 3 days above 30°C. At that temperature your body can’t rest
[Finnish warnings on hot and cold weather: ](https://en.ilmatieteenlaitos.fi/warnings-on-hot-and-cold-weather)
Heat warnings:
– Hot: +27C
– Very hot: +30C
– Extremely hot: +35C
Cold weather warnings (including wind chill):
– Cold: -30C
– Very cold: -40C
– Extremely cold: -45C
In England, Low/Medium/High thresholds for heat alerts are max daytime temperatures of 28°/32°/40° in London and 27°/30°/38° in the rest of the country.
For cold alerts, across all of England, Low is average (not max or min) temperatures below 2° for 48 hours, Medium is average temperatures below 2° for five days or below 0° for 48 hours, High is average temperatures below 0° for for five days or below -2° for 48 hours.
In Scotland, anything over 15C is considered a danger to life.
We’re ginger, pale, and some have freckles; the sun is our natural enemy.
Any other weather is to be expected: rain, wind, snow and ice, are ignored as “the usual”.
The most disruptive weather pattern which is semi- regularly occurring in Czechia is flooding. The red warning is in this case issued if the floodwaters are expected to reach high enough to require evacuations of low-lying houses. For each measuring station along Czech rivers, there are specific water flow rates defined which will cause the warning to be issued for their area if exceeded.
For temperatures, red warning means that the maximum temperatures will rise over 37°C or minimum temperatures will fall under -24°C, and for winds, if the speeds exceed 30 m/s in lowlands or 45 m/s in the mountains.
honestly, nothing
like we have the occasional once in a 100 year local floods or mudstreams but otherwise nothing
there’s no regular phenomenom that disrupts civil live, sure people will say that first frost can make the road slippy and it does but that’s expected, people will complain that the trains get to a halt because of leaves falling but that’s also expected
on the average, we simply **can** keep on going and I think that’s our greatest strength
extreme weather would be a sudden cold so the salt-sprayers haven’t had a chance to go out or so warm that the civil brigade has to go out and distribute water to the elderly and the fire brigade is on high alert for forest fires if that answers your question
in Ukraine it was –20 / +30, which meant no school days. now +30 is ignored bc heatwaves and –20 is rare
In Finland +27C during summer gives warning about “potentially dangerous heat”
+30C and they tell people to avoid being outside.
But aparrently +35C is limit for “Extreme heat warning”
-20C gives warning about cold
-25C is severe cold
-35C is extreme cold warning.
In Sweden we have the national “Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute”, SMHI for short. They give out 3 levels of warnings:
Yellow: Something can happen that causes damage to property, like strong winds or dry weather causing increased risks of fires.
Orange: Same as above but the weather may cause SERIOUS damage.
Red: Prepare yourself, stay inside, avoid windows. Serious damage is unavoidable. All shops and services will close.
We don’t have any warnings for low temperatures. Since we always have low temperature every winter people are expected to dress properly. One exception is low temperature combined with strong winds. The wind will make the actual temperature much lower than what the thermometer says. So you could be fooled and dress to lightly. But that is only a yellow warning.
These three levels are not based on fixed temperatures or wind speed but rather on the consequences the weather will have on people and environment.
Based on “red levels of danger” issued by belarusian meteorological institution over the past few years
– a very high probability of wildfires (prolonged dry weather, especially combined with winds or high temperatures)
– maximal temps reaching 35°C
– strong winds (over 25 meters per second)
– freezing rains, thick ice layers forming over everything
Very low temps didn’t seem to warrant a red level yet I remember schools being cancelled in milder western regions of the country when lows of -25°C were forecasted
It really depends a lot on the region in the Uk. The definition of extreme depends basically in terms of what your usual weather is in an average year.
I’m from Northern Ireland but lived in southern England and London too.
I’ll just list the parameters based on my anecdotal experience.
Northern Ireland:
– Extreme heat: anything above 30c. We get 27/28c most years but 30c only occurs every couple of years.
– Extreme cold: anything below about -10c/-15c.
– Extreme snow: we get snow every year (but it only lasts a few days), for us anything over about six-seven inches is veering on extreme though this does depend on your elevation.
– Extreme wind: we are a windy country, so anything above 80mph would be extreme.
London:
– Extreme heat: anything above 35c. 30-32c occurs every summer so this wouldn’t draw attention. I think a year or so ago it was 32c in September.
– Extreme cold: anything below -6c/-7c. London doesn’t go below 0c that often.
– Extreme snow: some years it doesn’t snow in London at all. Usually they get a skiff of a covering that melts quickly. In terms of extreme I would say maybe 3-4 inches.
– Extreme wind: 60mph. It’s not often windy in London and I used to receive weather warnings for 50mph winds whilst in NI people would laugh at that.