Extreme Weather Services

Research on European extreme weather and global drought conducted within the UCL Hazard Centre has achieved substantive commercial and humanitarian impact though provision of real-time monitoring of global tropical storms, and extreme weather alert feeds to Reuters AlertNet, the global humanitarian news portal and global drought monitoring for the United Nations World Food Programme and other humanitarian organisations.

Commercialisation of these products include EuroTempest Ltd, a weather risk service and in 2009, the launch of the ‘Tropical Storm Risk Business’; a public web-based ‘Tropical Storm Risk (TSR)’ warning service.

References to the research:

• Statistical evidence links exceptional 1995 Atlantic hurricane season to record sea warming, M. A. Saunders and A. R. Harris, Geophys. Res. Lett., 24, 1255-1258 (1997) doi:10/b3jq3
• Global Tropical Storm Tracker, M. A. Saunders, F. P. Roberts and P. C. Yuen (2004) - available online: www.tropicalstormrisk.com
• Atlantic hurricanes and NW Pacific typhoons: ENSO spatial impacts on occurrence and landfall, M. A. Saunders, R. E. Chandler, C. J. Merchant and F. P. Roberts, Geophys. Res. Lett., 27(8), 1147-1150 (2000) doi:10/d98qtg
• Seasonal prediction of hurricane activity reaching the coast of the United States, M. A. Saunders and A. S. Lea, Nature, 434, 1005-1008 (2005) doi:10/c3282z
• Large contribution of sea surface warming to recent increase in Atlantic hurricane activity, M. A. Saunders and A. S. Lea, Nature, 451, 557-560 (2008) doi:10/fqk66m
• Forecasting stronger profits, N. Hilti, M. A. Saunders and B. Lloyd-Hughes, Global Reinsurance (July/August 2004) [PDF]