The Oxford Handbook of Non-Synoptic Wind Storms

Abstract Wind storms impact human lives in their built as well as natural habitats. During the past century, society’s vulnerability to wind storms has been reduced by enhanced knowledge of their impact and by controlling exposure through better design. However, only two wind systems have so far been considered in the design of buildings and structures: synoptic winds resulting from macroscale weather systems spanning thousands of kilometers (e.g., extratropical storms) and mesoscale tropical storms spanning hundreds of kilometers and traveling fast (e.g., hurricanes, typhoons, cyclones). During the past two decades, enough evidence has surfaced to support that a third type of very localized wind storms, the non-synoptic winds, are the most damaging in some regions of the world. Thus far there are no design provisions established for the codification of these wind storms. Their characterization in terms of climatology, wind field and intensity, frequency, and occurrence, as well as their impact on the built environment, is slowly developing. This handbook presents state-of-the-art knowledge related to all these features including their risk, insurance issues, and economics. The research in this area is, on the one hand, more arduous given the reduced scale, three-dimensionality, and nonstationary aspects of these non-synoptic winds while, on the other hand, its understanding and modeling are being aided by the emergence of the novel modeling and simulation techniques addressed in this handbook. This handbook will serve as a guiding resource for those interested in learning about and contributing to the advancement of the field.