Separation and classification of extreme wind events from anemometric records

• A wide and high quality anemometric monitoring network has been realized in port areas.
• The measured data are validated and stored into a central dataset.
• Intense wind events are classified into depressions, thunderstorms and gust fronts.
• A semi-automated criterion based on continuous anemometric records is formulated to separate independent extreme wind events.

The separation and classification of intense wind events into homogeneous families is a key topic to study the wind-excited response of structures and to determine the distribution of extreme wind velocities and extreme wind-induced effects. This paper deals with the management of large sets of wind velocity data, in order to separate and classify independent extreme wind events through a semi-automated procedure involving a suitable mix of systematic quantitative controls and specific qualitative judgments. The proposed method is applied to an extensive dataset of continuous wind measurements provided by a wide and high quality monitoring network realized in the five main ports of the Northern Tyrrhenian Sea – namely Genova, Savona, La Spezia, Livorno and Bastia – in the framework of the European Project “Wind and Ports”.