European Severe Storms Laboratory

25/02/2026

We have several upcoming events in the next few weeks where you can take part!

On 19 March, an annual forecaster event will be held to present results from the ESSL-EUMETSAT Testbeds in 2025. Great event to check out if you are interested in signing up for one of these events in 2026 or next year. More information on the attached flyer.

Also, registrations for the 2026 ESSL-EUMETSAT Testbeds are still ongoing. More information can be found here here: https://user.eumetsat.int/news-events/events/tra.events.2624

If you are looking for a course before the summer severe weather begins, in the week of 23 March, we have our standard Forecasting severe convection course. You can register for the event here: https://www.events.essl.org/details-registrierung/course-forecasting-severe-convection-fsc-2026-spring-edition

And in the week of 13 April, we offer a specialized course for the aviation meteorologists on the topic of severe convection. You can register for the event here: https://www.events.essl.org/details-registrierung/course-aviation-forecasting-of-severe-convection-2026-spring-edition

25/11/2025

ECSS 2025 is over. It was an amazing and record-breaking conference with 350 participants from 41 countries presenting 200 posters and 80 talks. Among different sessions, we honoured the contribution of Dr. Charles Doswell to the science of convective storms and the training of forecasters worldwide.

It was also an award time! This year, the Nikolai Dotzek Award went to Professor Yvette Richardson (Penn State University, US) for her outstanding contributions to understanding tornadogenesis and supercell dynamics, as well as for her immeasurable impact on science through her supervision of students who have gone on to develop impressive research careers of their own. European Meteorological Society Young Scientist Conference Award to Dr. Monika Feldmann, who has been involved in many excellent studies presented at this conference.

19/11/2025

This week, all of the ESSL staff are in Utrecht, Netherlands. The reason? 12th edition of European Conference on Severe Storms (ECSS)!

The conference is taking place this week in Utrecht and will run until Friday, 21 November, bringing together more than 350 participants from 41 countries, which is by far the highest number we've ever had. ECSS2025 features over 80 talks and more than 200 posters, covering a wide range of topics in severe convective storms research.

We thank our local organising partner, the KNMI - Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute, as well as EUMETSAT and the European Meteorological Society for their support in making this conference possible.

28/10/2025

Interested in learning more about how to forecast severe convective storms and how to use the radar data to interrogate their severity? Then join our courses next spring! More information here:
https://www.events.essl.org/details-registrierung/course-forecasting-severe-convection-fsc-2026-spring-edition
https://www.events.essl.org/details-registrierung/course-optimal-use-of-radar-data-in-severe-storm-nowcasting

06/06/2025

The abstract submission deadline for the ECSS has been postponed to June 15, 2025. 15 June is the final deadline; there will be no further extensions.

We cordially invite you to submit a contribution for the 12th European Conference on Severe Storms, which will take place in Utrecht, the Netherlands, from 17 to 21 November 2025.

Submit your abstract here:

Precise match in quotes: "term1 term2" "red apples" returns results matching exactly like: Anthocyanin biosynthesis in red apples

29/05/2025

6 June 2025 is the deadline for submitting abstracts for the upcoming European Conference on Severe Storms (ECSS2025) in Utrecht, the Netherlands!

We look forward to seeing you at the conference and seeing interesting new science presented there!

Curious to find out more about the conference? Look here:
https://www.essl.org/cms/european-conferences-on-severe-storms/ecss2025/

18/03/2025

New ESSL study: Lightning kills about 64 people per year across Europe, 78% of them being men. In Eastern Europe, most victims were at work, whilst in Western Europe people were typically engaged in leisure activities. Read more here: https://doi.org/10.1175/WCAS-D-24-0038.1

03/03/2025

We have a vacancy open! Apply if you would like to help us improve our models for predicting severe weather hazards, ARCHaMo-s, generate event sets of severe weather hazards, or contribute to developing forecasting and nowcasting tools. See more here:

https://www.essl.org/cms/vacancy-for-researcher/

11/02/2025

In 2024, we've recorded 642 severe weather-related fatalities. Heavy rainfall caused most of them (409 or 64%). Severe wind gusts and lightning were the second and third leading cause of death.

07/02/2025

In 2024, we've received more than 10,700 reports of heavy rain, the largest number since 2006. Heavy rain was also by far the deadliest type of severe weather, causing 409 fatalities. 232 fatalities were caused by the flood in the Valencia area on 29 October.

04/02/2025

We've collected more than 10,000 reports of large hail in 2024, a new record. Large hail injured 41 people in total, much less than 328 injuries reported from 2023. Find out more about the major hailstorms of 2024 in the blog: https://essl.org/cms/hailstorms-of-2024/