Cyclone Lothar and Martin

Lothar and Martin^[1] were violent European windstorms which swept across western and central Europe during a period of 36 hours in December 1999. The storms caused major damage in France, southern Germany, Switzerland, and Italy. Throughout the affected region, 140 people were killed^[2] and damage was estimated at €9.9 billion.^[3][4] Both of these storms were associated with an intense jet stream aloft and benefitted from latent heat release through atmosphere-ocean exchange processes. Lothar and Martin together left 3.4 million customers in France without electricity, and forced EdF to acquire all the available portable power generators in Europe, with some even being brought in from Canada.^[5] These storms brought a fourth of France's high-tension transmission lines down and 300 high-voltage transmission pylons were toppled. It was one of the greatest energy disruptions ever experienced by a modern developed country.^[2]

Storms Lothar (L) and Martin (M) viewed by satellite, December 26, 1999.

Meteorological history

December 1999 saw a series of heavy winter storms cross the North Atlantic and western Europe. In early December, Great Britain and Denmark were hit by Cyclone Anatol which caused severe damage in Denmark. A second storm then crossed Europe on 12 December.^[6] A very deep and sizeable 938 mb depression moved across Britain on the night of 24–25 December, this set up a large area of westerly flow into Europe which brought Lothar. This highly unstable situation inevitably meant low predictability, and saw an unusually straight and strong jet stream (similar circumstances were also noted the day before the arrival of the Great Storm of 1987).^[7] Storm Martin then struck France and central Europe from 26 to 28 December 1999. At the end of January 2000 two additional damaging storms crossed Denmark and the northern part of Germany.^[6]

Forecast

Windstorm Lothar was not well predicted, with one meteorologist later claiming that forecasts could be split into those that were poor and those that were very poor.^[7] According to some forecasts, the storm was predicted to pass through the United Kingdom, while others failed to predict significant intensification at all. The strong jet stream that was the chief cause of the instability was well predicted by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts 9 days earlier.^[7] Approximately 24 hours before the storm hit France, Météo-France issued a warning of a strong storm with the correct path, but two hours before the storm hit Paris, inland windspeeds were still predicted to be between 90–130 km/h (56-81 mph), rather than the 125–175 km/h (80-110 mph) range actually experienced.^[7]

MeteoSwiss found the storm Lothar extremely difficult to predict, as even the large forecast models of international weather services initially overlooked the small disturbance above the Atlantic Ocean which formed the storm. Consequently, the power and extent of the storm was only recognized in the early morning of 26 December, which resulted in shorter warning times in Switzerland.^[6] In a number of places, officials failed to realize the importance of the warnings, so they were not passed on to the public as they should have been. It is presumed that this occurred because of the holidays.^[6]

The German Weather Service (Deutscher Wetterdienst) was criticised for not issuing a storm warning for Lothar in contrast to the weather services of other countries and private German services, apparently due to a software bug.

Lothar

Lothar

Track of the central low pressure of Lothar
Formed	25 December 1999
Dissipated	27 December 1999
Lowest pressure	960 mb (28 inHg)
Highest gust	259 km/h (161 mph)
Fatalities	110[2]
Areas affected	Western Europe

During the first storm Lothar, wind speeds reached around 150 km/h (93 mph) in low lying areas and more than 250 km/h (160 mph) on some mountains. In less than half a day the storm tore across France, Belgium and Germany, only finally beginning to weaken as it crossed Poland. The storm's compact internal pressure gradients generated winds which were comparable to those of a Category 2 hurricane.^[2]

The Paris region was strongly affected by the storm during the early morning. The Palace of Versailles and its monumental park were considerably damaged (over 10.000 trees were lost within two hours, including valuable specimens planted by Napoleon and Marie Antoinette). Other cultural heritage, forests and public gardens throughout the area were as severely affected by the hurricane-force winds. Public life was disrupted due to power outages and blocked infrastructure. Besides buildings and infrastructure, forests, such as the Black Forest in Germany, suffered major damage resulting in substantial economic loss.

Lothar successor

A case study of the Manual of Synoptic Satellite Meteorology featured by the Austrian Meteorological Institute (ZAMG) identified an area of secondary cyclogenesis which brought gusts in excess of 90 km/h to Northern France, Belgium and Southwestern Germany.^[8] The system formed in the wake of Lothar, and crossed Europe before the arrival of the later storm Martin. The identification of this secondary area and its frontal systems contrasts with the analysis of the German Weather Service which suggested that solely a 'trough line' crossed Germany.^[9]

Martin

Clearing damage in Angoulême 28 December 1999
Formed	26 December 1999
Dissipated	28 December 1999
Lowest pressure	963 mb (28.4 inHg)
Highest gust	200 km/h (120 mph)
Fatalities	30[2]
Areas affected	Western Europe

Martin

Martin was a violent European windstorm which crossed southern Europe (France, Spain, Switzerland and Italy) on 27–28 December 1999, one day after another powerful storm, Lothar. Wind speeds reached around 200 km/h in French département of Charente-Maritime (198 km/h in Oleron island and 194 km/h in Royan),^[10] sustained winds of over 140 km/h were observed in Gironde (Cap Ferret, 173 km/h), Vendée (Île d'Yeu, 162 km/h) Haute-Vienne (Limoges, 148 km/h)^[11] and Haute-Garonne (Toulouse, 141 km/h). The storm caused 30 fatalities. Building and infrastructures suffered major damage, and mains power and safety systems were knocked out due to flooding at the Blayais Nuclear Power Plant, resulting in a 'level 2' event on the International Nuclear Event Scale.^[12]

Aftermath

These storms caused extensive damage to property and trees (13,000,000 m³/459,090,667 ft³ of wood in Switzerland^[13] and 140,000,000 m³/4,944,053,340 ft³ were felled in France.)^[14] The French and German national power grids were also left badly affected.

Highest winds

Lothar

Martin

See also

• Cyclone Anatol

References

External links

• Met Office, University of Exeter & University of Reading Extreme Wind Storm Catalogue: Lothar and Martin
• (French) Les tempêtes en France
• Details of damage in France (pdf)

European windstorms Historical Grote Mandrenke Burchardi flood Great Storm of 1703 Night of the Big Wind Moray Firth fishing disaster Tay Bridge disaster Eyemouth disaster 1900s North Sea flood of 1953 Hurricane Debbie 1961 North Sea flood of 1962 1968 Scotland storm Quimburga 1972 Gale of January 1976 December 1981 windstorm Ex-Hurricane Charley 1986 Great Storm of 1987 Burns' Day storm 1990 New Year's Day Storm 1992 Braer Storm of January 1993 Boxing Day Storm 1998 Anatol 1999 Lothar and Martin 1999 2000s Oratia 2000 Jeanett 2002 Gudrun 2005 Per 2007 Kyrill 2007 Emma 2008 Klaus 2009 Xynthia 2010 Berit 2011 Friedhelm/Bawbag 2011 Joachim 2011 Dagmar 2011 Ulli 2011 Andrea 2012 St Jude 2013 Xaver 2013 Dirk 2013 Anne and Christina 2014 Tini 2014 Elon and Felix 2015 Niklas 2015 See also European windstorm List of European windstorms