Climate Impact Research

The main goal of the research within the Climate Impacts group is to further the understanding of the physical and dynamical processes that result in extreme weather events in Switzerland, and to describe them statistically. Our focus is on wind storms, severe convection and hail, and heavy precipitation.

We are further interested in the statistical properties of extreme events such as the frequency, amplitude and co-occurrence of extremes, the spatial and temporal clustering of extremes, and the spatial extent.

Our mission statements:

• We explore, characterize and quantify the dynamics and processes leading to meso-scale and synoptic-scale high impact weather and study how these events change in a warmer climate.
• We provide climatological information on high-impact weather events in Switzerland, this includes pertinent statistical properties.
• Our analyses provide the basis for the development of new forecasting and nowcasting products.
• Our results are shared with the scientific community through specialized journal articles and with the general public via public lectures and press articles.

We closely collaborate with the Mobiliar Lab for Natural Risks.