Hurricanes, Gales

Among the heaviest tempests of the B altic Sea and correspondingly at the German Baltic Sea coast rank the gales. Because an eye is also formed in the center of heavy Baltic Sea gales, one can call them the small hurricanes of the Baltic Sea (Fig. 4.1). 

The gales of the Baltic Sea are blowing around very intense lows, with core pressures generally less than 990 Hectopascal (hPa) and with gusts starting from wind force 12 Beaufort (Bft)—approximately 65 knots or 120 km/h (Bromann, 1973). 

These gales arise predominantly in the winter when thermally different air masses collide over the North Atlantic and Europe. In the winter time the west-wind jet—the strong wind field in 500 hPa (about 5 km) altitude—is frequently located over central Europe, often directly over northern and central Germany (Fig. 4.2). 

FIGURE 4.1 Gale over the southern Baltic Sea on Decemher 31, 2006,0700 UTC (Meteo-France, with permission). Color figure on CD, Chapter 20.4. 

The gales of the southern Baltic Sea develop repeatedly from very strong low pressure waves, which spread from the North Sea and achieve their full development as a gale only over the western Baltic Sea (Fig. 4.4). 

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A gale or hurricane blows with great speed. 

If your business processes, stores and/or transports dangerous chemicals, and suddenly you are alerted to a twister coming yotu way, or a hurricane or thunderstorm with gale-force winds, what happens if those dangerous chemicals go flying, spill, or are otherwise released Make sure you maintain an emergency stockpile of ... 

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