European Severe Storms Laboratory

Mission

ESSL performs severe weather research and supports the research community by operating the European Severe Weather Database and (co-)organizing the European Conferences on Severe Storms. With the ESSL Testbed, courses and workshops, it provides a facility to evaluate new forecast tools and provides training to Europe’s weather forecasters.

History

The laboratory started as an informal network of European scientists in 2002 initiated by Dr. Nikolai Dotzek. In 2006, European Severe Storms Laboratory e.V. became a non-profit registered association under German law with seat in Wessling, Germany.

A subsidiary association, the European Severe Storms Laboratory – Science and Training, also with non-profit status, was founded in 2011 and has its seat in Wiener Neustadt, Austria. It is the legal body for the “ESSL Research and Training Centre” in Wiener Neustadt. This website presents the activities of both organizations under responsibility of the former.

Statutory purposes

The statutory purposes of the Association European Severe Storms Laboratory e.V. (ESSL) are threefold:

- to advance meteorology and related sciences in the field of research on severe convective storms and extreme weather events on a European level;
- to operate and extend the European Severe Weather Database, ESWD;
- to support or organise the European Conferences on Severe Storms, ECSS