Gudrun was a powerful storm which hit

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

and

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

on 8 January 2005, and

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

and

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

on 9 January 2005. The name Erwin was chosen by the

Free University of Berlin The Free University of Berlin (, often abbreviated as FU Berlin or simply FU) is a public university, public research university in Berlin, Germany. It was founded in West Berlin in 1948 with American support during the early Cold War period a ...

, while the storm was named Gudrun by the

Norwegian Meteorological Institute The Norwegian Meteorological Institute (), also known internationally as MET Norway, is Norway's national meteorological institute. It provides weather forecasts for civilian and military uses and conducts research in meteorology, oceanography an ...

and was the name used in

. Sustained wind speeds of with wind gusts of were measured in

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– the same strength as a

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. The storm caused significant financial damage in Sweden, where the forest industry suffered greatly from damaged trees, as more than of trees were blown down in southern Sweden. This resulted in Sweden at the time having the world's largest surplus of lumber. About 415,000 homes lost power in Sweden and several thousand of these were without power for many days and even weeks in some cases, as about 10,000 homes were still without power after three weeks. The death toll in Sweden was 7 victims, making it one of the biggest environmental disasters in Swedish history, while four were killed in Denmark and one in Estonia.

Meteorological history

On 6 January 2005, a low pressure system developed at a frontal zone south of

Newfoundland Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region of Labrador, having a total size of . As of 2025 the population ...

. It moved into the central

North Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for ...

and was named 'Erwin' by the

. Erwin strengthened rapidly and its pressure at the time of naming was . Erwin moved quickly, and was already moving over

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and

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on the 8th. In the UK, temperatures were noticeably higher after the passing of Erwin. On the 9th, Erwin had already moved into the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by the countries of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the North European Plain, North and Central European Plain regions. It is the ...

with a minimum central pressure of . Over much of Central and Western Europe, temperatures were very mild. The next day, weakening Erwin was over Western Russia with a pressure of . Erwin began slowing down as it moved into Central Russia. On 13 January, Erwin dissipated over Russia.

Impact

Carlisle and Cumbria flooding

In the UK, the main impacts of the storm were flooding in Cumbria and Carlisle, where 1,800 homes were flooded in the city.

Sweden blackout and damage to forests

Gudrun is one of the strongest storms to impact Sweden in the last 100 years. It caused much damage to forests in

Halland Halland () is one of the traditional provinces of Sweden (''landskap''), on the western coast of Götaland, southern Sweden. It borders Västergötland, Småland, Skåne, Scania and the sea of Kattegat. Until 1645 and the Second Treaty of Br ...

the southwestern part of the

South Swedish highlands 300px, Aerial view of farms and forest in Ydre Municipality. 250px, The forested landscape of the South Swedish highlands, seen from Eksjö_Municipality.html" ;"title="Skuruhatt in Eksjö Municipality">Skuruhatt in Eksjö Municipality. The Sout ...

(

Småland Småland () is a historical Provinces of Sweden, province () in southern Sweden. Småland borders Blekinge, Scania, Halland, Västergötland, Östergötland and the island Öland in the Baltic Sea. The name ''Småland'' literally means "small la ...

). Spruces were particularly hit by Gudrun, while other trees with a more steady root system fared better. Damage was also exacerbated by the practice of

clearcutting Clearcutting, clearfelling or clearcut logging is a forestry/logging practice in which most or all trees in an area are uniformly cut down. Along with Shelterwood cutting, shelterwood and Seed tree, seed tree harvests, it is used by foresters t ...

, leaving many trees exposed. Gudrun also caused blackouts and disabled telecommunications infrastructure.

Aftermath

Byholma Wood Stockpile

The cyclone created the world's largest wood stockpile, which Gizmodo lists as containing of wood as of May 2012. In Sweden, the total volume of wood from the trees struck down by the storm was about .

Political impact in Sweden

In her dissertation, "Natural Disasters and National Election", Lina M. Eriksson, PhD, found that the storm played a crucial role in the historic regime shift in the

2006 Swedish general election General elections were held in Sweden on 17 September 2006, to elect members to the Riksdag, the Swedish national legislature. All 349 seats were up for election: 310 fixed seats in 29 constituencies and 39 adjustment seats, used to ensure that p ...

. The incumbent

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Form ...

's poor crisis response to Gudrun, hitherto the most expensive natural disaster in Swedish history, significantly contributed to the incumbent's loss. In a subsequent article in

Electoral Studies ''Electoral Studies'' is an international bi-monthly peer-reviewed academic journal dedicated to the study of elections and voting. It was first established in 1982 by David Butler ( Nuffield College, Oxford) and Bo Särlvik (University of Essex) ...

, it was observed that the deficient storm response still swayed voters in the

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

and

2014 elections * 2014 United Nations Security Council election 16 October 2014 Africa * 2014 Algerian presidential election 17 April 2014 * 2014 Botswana general election 24 October 2014 * 2014 Comorian presidential election 21 February and 10 April 2014 * 2014 ...

References

Danish page with wind speeds and satellite image
- From the

Danish Meteorological Institute The Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI; ) is the official Danish meteorological institute, administrated by the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Utilities. It makes weather forecasts and observations for Denmark, Greenland, and the Faroe Is ...

(in Danish).
Guy Carpenter report on Windstorm Erwin / Gudrun – January 2005
- A report for the insurance business with detailed information about the storm.

External links

Windstorm Erwin / Gudrun – January 2005, Guy Carpenter
{{Authority control

Gudrun Gudrun ( ; ) or Kriemhild ( ; ) is the wife of Sigurd/Siegfried and a major figure in Germanic heroic legend and literature. She is believed to have her origins in Ildico, last wife of Attila the Hun, and two queens of the Merovingian dyn ...

2005 in Denmark 2005 in Sweden 2005 meteorology 2005 natural disasters January 2005 in Europe