Scandinavian storminess since about 1800 -: art. no. L20202

We study the history of storminess in Northern Europe, as derived from local pressure observations in Lund since 1780 and Stockholm since 1820 ( Sweden). At both stations barometer readings were made three times per day, morning, midday and evening, and after about 1850 at fixed observation hours. We use four common storminess indices: annual number of deep lows ( p < 980 hPa), the annual 95th and 99th percentile of pressure changes between two observations, and the annual number of fast absolute pressure changes (\Delta p\/Delta t > 16 hPa/12 h). It turns out that the 1980' s - mid 1990' s were a period of enhanced storminess, mainly seen in the Stockholm record, but his period is within the natural variability of the records. Thus, there are no robust signs of any long-term trend in the storminess indices. Storminess is during the entire historical period remarkably stable, with no systematic change and little transient variability.