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”.