Modeling wind vulnerability of French houses to European extra-tropical cyclones using empirical methods

Extra-tropical cyclones that occur between Autumn and Spring in northern Europe results in billions of dollars of economic as well as insured loss annually across Europe. The wind footprint of these storms are characterised by low level peak gusts over wide swathes of a region with varying spatial intensification subject to local site conditions as well as meteorological variations. The damage from these low level peak gusts are typically to the roofing and cladding elements of the building with some occurrences of structural damage and indirect damage from tree fall. This paper first identifies the damage modes from Europe extra-tropical cyclones and studies the design and construction practices of French buildings focusing on residential single-family homes. A relative meso-scale vulnerability summary in terms of frequency of highest design level occurrences for wind, snow, earthquake loads and roof construction practices for wind and rain was developed. This showed that regions in the north-west and Mediterranean coast were expected to have the lowest wind vulnerability, while the south-west the highest, which is consistent with the experience from insurance loss data from Lothar, Martin and Klaus windstorms.

► This paper reviews literature on damage from historical windstorms impacting France. ► Identifies damage modes to residential homes in France. ► Studies the design and construction practices to develop a relative meso-scale vulnerability summary.