Cyclone Anatol

For the masculine given name, see Anatol (given name).

Infrared satellit image of Anatol over Northern Europe, december 3^rd 1999 at 16.25 UTC.

Anatol is the name given by the German Weather Service (the Danish service knew it as "Adam") to a powerful winter storm that hit Denmark, Southwest Sweden, and Northern Germany on December 3, 1999. The storm had sustained winds of 146 km/h and wind gusts of up to 184 km/h, equivalent to an intense category 1 hurricane, which is unusually strong for storms in northern Europe. The storm caused six fatalities and over 800 injuries in Denmark.

According to the Danish Meteorological Institute, the storm is estimated to have caused damage in Denmark of DKK 15 billion, or about USD 3 billion. Storms causing damage of this magnitude are only expected every 500 years in Denmark.

The storm is referred to as a hurricane in Scandinavia and Germany even if it was, in fact, a European windstorm.

Meteorological history

A disturbance in the atmospheric circulation had began moving towards Europe. During the early evening of 2 December 1999, a closed cyclonic circulation was observed off the west coast of Ireland. The next day, a ship reported a pressure of 990 hPa near the British Isles. Anatol reached its lowest pressure at 953 hPa near Jutland on December 3.

See also

• The 2005 storm Erwin
• The 2007 storm Per
• European windstorm

Sources

• Three extreme storms over Europe in December 1999 U. Ulbrich, A. H. Fink, M. Klawa and J. G. Pinto. Institut für Geophysik und Meteorologie der Universität zu Köln.
• Windstorms in Denmark - from DMI (in Danish)