Storm David (also called Cyclone Friederike in Germany) was a compact but deadly

European windstorm European windstorms are powerful extratropical cyclones which form as cyclone, cyclonic windstorms associated with areas of low atmospheric pressure. They can occur throughout the year, but are most frequent between October and March, with peak ...

that heavily affected the

British Isles The British Isles are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner Hebrides, Inner and Outer Hebr ...

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Central Europe Central Europe is a geographical region of Europe between Eastern Europe, Eastern, Southern Europe, Southern, Western Europe, Western and Northern Europe, Northern Europe. Central Europe is known for its cultural diversity; however, countries in ...

, Northern

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Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

and parts of

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic connotations. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountain ...

in early 2018 with widespread hurricane-force gusts and severe snowfall, creating blizzard conditions in some areas. The storm caused extensive damage and traffic disruption. It was given the name ''David'' by

Météo France Météo may refer to: *Weather in French * Météo-France, the French national meteorological service * MétéoMédia, a 24-hour Canadian French-language cable television specialty channel and web site * Météo Suisse, officially the Federal Offic ...

while the FUB named it ''Friederike''.

Meteorological history

On 14 January a weak low pressure area in the

Southern Caribbean The Southern Caribbean is a group of islands that neighbor mainland South America in the West Indies. Saint Lucia lies to the north of the region, Barbados in the east, Trinidad and Tobago at its southernmost point, and Aruba at the most westerly ...

developed a trough to its northeast. During the formation of the trough, weather in the

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 ...

was dominated by the strong Icelandic Low Fionn (called Evi 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 ...

) that itself brought windy conditions to

Greenland Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is by far the largest geographically of three constituent parts of the kingdom; the other two are metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Citizens of Greenlan ...

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

and

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

and bottomed out at a very intense central low pressure of . At that time, a very intense

jet stream Jet streams are fast flowing, narrow thermal wind, air currents in the Earth's Atmosphere of Earth, atmosphere. The main jet streams are located near the altitude of the tropopause and are westerly winds, flowing west to east around the gl ...

was prevalent in the North Atlantic, driven by the powerful arctic low. Thus, two of the main global weather prediction centres, GFS and

ECMWF The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) is an independent intergovernmental organisation supported by most of the nations of Europe. It is based at three sites: Shinfield, Shinfield Park, Reading, Berkshire, Reading, Unite ...

, predicted Fionn to steer the new cyclone into Europe, leading to an impact on the British Isles and

Continental Europe Continental Europe or mainland Europe is the contiguous mainland of Europe, excluding its surrounding islands. It can also be referred to ambiguously as the European continent, – which can conversely mean the whole of Europe – and, by som ...

. By that time, the track and intensity of the new storm were not clear. Likewise it was unclear if the new weather feature would affect Europe as a cyclone or if it would remain an open trough until it arrives. By 16 January the trough now stretched from its Southern Caribbean origin to eastern

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 ...

. During that day, the trough developed a circulation centre near its northern end (Newfoundland), forming closed isobars around it which indicate a closed wind circulation and qualify the system as an

extratropical cyclone Extratropical cyclones, sometimes called mid-latitude cyclones or wave cyclones, are low-pressure areas which, along with the anticyclones of high-pressure areas, drive the weather over much of the Earth. Extratropical cyclones are capable of p ...

. Hours after formation, the storm was caught by Fionn's strong jetstream and started moving to the east, posing a threat to Europe. While crossing the Atlantic, David once again lost some structural definition and opened up into a trough under the strong influence of Fionn. The weakened David was racing eastward through the North Atlantic, taking aim at the British Isles. Meanwhile, the ECMWF and GFS lowered their predictions concerning David's intensity as it was unclear if the system would be able to recover from the structural deterioration that was inflicted by Fionn. David would cross the North Atlantic in less than two days. While David was approaching Ireland in the evening of 17 January, Fionn started to weaken as its centre began to fill. David managed to redevelop a closed circulation while passing over the British Isles and the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...

in the morning of 18 January, worsening the risks for Central and Eastern Europe. Britain received some hurricane-force gusts up to . Subsequently, the storm had some hours to gain additional energy while moving quickly over the

before making landfall in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. The cyclone's minimal pressure bottomed out at while centred over the North Sea, which was substantially lower than predicted by GFS and ECMWF.

Vlieland (; ) is a municipality and island in the northern Netherlands. The municipality of Vlieland is the second most sparsely populated municipality in the Netherlands, after Schiermonnikoog. Vlieland is one of the West Frisian Islands, lying in t ...

, an island off the northern Dutch coast, where the storm made the first of its two landfalls in the Netherlands, experienced wind gusts up to . Moving on, the winter storm rampaged in Germany, disrupting public transport services as it already did in the Benelux and causing ten deaths on 18 January. While centred over Germany, the storm still was near peak intensity, having a central pressure between , and caused widespread gusts in the range, with gusts up to on mountains. During the evening of 18 January, the eastward moving centre of David crossed the Polish border and weakened to . David weakened to a regular low pressure area as its winds fell below storm force on 19 January. It continued its eastward motion through Belarus and the westernmost part of Russia. The southern flank of the low also affected the weather in Slovakia and Ukraine. On 22 January 2018, being located over western Russia, David merged with another weak low that was located over Scandinavia. Thus, David dissipated as a meteorological entity. FriederikeStorm

David was a compact and fast-moving cyclone, which is typical for systems that are steered by strong Icelandic lows which develop a strong easterly flow on their southern side. Similar to Fionn, David itself had its main wind field located to the south of its centre; the northern semicircle featured comparatively low winds but was more intense in terms of precipitation. Heavy snowfall occurred on the northern flank of the storm, causing blizzard conditions in some areas.

Impact

Beginning on 16 January, prior to David's arrival, the very deep and large arctic low Fionn battered the British isles with high winds. Storm conditions also occurred in other parts of Western and Central Europe in the middle of January 2018 (even affecting

Corsica Corsica ( , , ; ; ) is an island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the Regions of France, 18 regions of France. It is the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fourth-largest island in the Mediterranean and lies southeast of the Metro ...

). The intense winds were caused by an extensive "squeeze in isobars" that, probably amongst other meteorological factors, was caused by Fionn's great depth and extension. During that time, David was crossing the Atlantic and fluctuated in intensity, leading some models to a rather optimistic forecast. Nevertheless, David managed to begin a strengthening trend while crossing the British isles the night between 17 and 18 January. Thus, the fast-moving cyclone delivered winds up to and heavy snowfall in Britain, creating blizzard conditions there.

Windthrow In forestry, windthrow refers to trees uprooted by wind. Breakage of the tree bole (botany), bole (trunk) instead of uprooting is called windsnap. Blowdown refers to both windthrow and windsnap. Causes Windthrow is common in all forested ...

n trees blocked roads and rail routes. Approximately 140,000 households in Britain were temporarily without power. The Netherlands were even worse affected by the cyclone. All flights were cancelled at

Amsterdam Airport Schiphol Amsterdam Airport Schiphol , known informally as Schiphol Airport (, ), is the main international airport of the Netherlands, and is one of the major hubs for the SkyTeam airline alliance. It is located southwest of Amsterdam, in the municipal ...

. The rail transportation system was also completely defunct due to windthrow. Because of thrown trees and high winds, road traffic was, as well, nearly impossible and life-threatening. Winds up to knocked down trucks and cost three people's lives in the Netherlands. In the neighbouring country of

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

, similar conditions occurred, leading to the death of one woman. Furthermore, while the cyclone was centred over the Benelux, the northern French region of

Hauts-de-France Hauts-de-France (; ; ), also referred to in English as Upper France, is the northernmost region of France, created by the territorial reform of French regions in 2014, from a merger of Nord-Pas-de-Calais and Picardy. Its prefecture is Lille. ...

was lashed by winds up to . {, class="wikitable sortable floatleft" border="1" style="font-size: 92%" ! colspan=7 style="background:#ccf;" , Maximum gusts of Cyclone David , - !style="text-align:left" rowspan="2" data-sort-type="text", Country !colspan="2" , Lowland
(<200 m) !colspan="2" , Upland
(200 – 500 m) !colspan="2" , Highland or mountains
(>500 m) , - !data-sort-type="number", highest gust !data-sort-type="number", alt
!data-sort-type="number", highest gust !data-sort-type="number", alt
!data-sort-type="number", highest gust !data-sort-type="number", alt
, - !style="text-align:left" , Ireland , , , , , 0 , 0 , - !style="text-align:left" , United Kingdom , , {{sort, 17, 17 , {{sort, 150, {{convert, 150, km/h, mph, abbr=on

Capel Curig Capel Curig (; meaning " Curig's Chapel") is a village and community in Conwy County Borough, Wales. Historically in Caernarfonshire, it lies in the heart of Snowdonia, on the River Llugwy, and has a population of 226, reducing slightly to 206 ...

, {{sort, 216, 216 , {{sort, 78, {{convert, 78, km/h, mph, abbr=on{{ref, a, }{{ref, c, }

Great Dun Fell At a height of , Great Dun Fell is the second-highest mountain in England's Pennines, lying south along the watershed from Cross Fell, its higher neighbour. Together with its smaller twin, Little Dun Fell, which reaches , it forms a stepping ...

, {{sort, 847, 847 , - !style="text-align:left" , France , {{sort, 136, {{convert, 136, km/h, mph, abbr=on

Cap Gris-Nez Cap Gris-Nez is a cape located in Audinghen, a commune in the Pas-de-Calais département of northern France. Part of the Côte d'Opale, it is classified as a protected natural area. Its cliffs mark the closest point of France to Great Britain, ...

, {{sort, 30, 30 , 0 , 0 , {{sort, 119, {{convert, 119, km/h, mph, abbr=on
Embrun{{cite web, url=https://www.meteonord-pasdecalais.fr/2018/01/18/tempete-david-ce-jeudi-18-janvier/, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180206190211/https://www.meteonord-pasdecalais.fr/2018/01/18/tempete-david-ce-jeudi-18-janvier/ , archive-date=2018-02-06, access-date=2023-08-21, title=Tempête DAVID ce Jeudi 18 Janvier, language=fr , {{sort, 817, 817 , - !style="text-align:left" , Belgium , {{sort, 119, {{convert, 119, km/h, mph, abbr=on
Deurne,

Antwerp Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...

, {{sort, 12, 12 , {{sort, 93, {{convert, 93, km/h, mph, abbr=on{{ref, a, }

Marche-en-Famenne Marche-en-Famenne (; ; literally "Marche in Famenne") is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the Belgian province of Luxembourg. The municipality consists of the following districts: Aye, Hargimont, Humain, Marche-en-Famenne, ...

, {{sort, 294, 294 , {{sort, 96, {{convert, 96, km/h, mph, abbr=on{{ref, a, }
Mt. Rigi , {{sort, 671, 671 , - !style="text-align:left" , Netherlands , {{sort, 144, {{convert, 144, km/h, mph, abbr=on

, {{sort, 11, 11 , 0 , 0 , {{sort, -1, ''no such elevation'' , {{sort, -1, ''n.a.'' , - !style="text-align:left" , Luxembourg , {{sort, 81, {{convert, 81, km/h, mph, abbr=on{{ref, a, }

Wasserbillig Wasserbillig ( ) is a town in the commune of Mertert, in eastern Luxembourg. , Wasserbillig has 3,485 inhabitants, which makes it the largest town in Mertert. Wasserbillig is the administrative seat of the commune of Mertert. Geography Wass ...

, {{sort, 136, 136 , {{sort, 98, {{convert, 98, km/h, mph, abbr=on{{ref, a, }

Useldange Useldange ( ; ) is a Communes of Luxembourg, commune and small town in western Luxembourg, in the Redange (canton), canton of Redange. , the town of Useldange, which lies in the east of the commune, has a population of 1,127. Other towns within t ...

, {{sort, 280, 280 , {{sort, 102, {{convert, 102, km/h, mph, abbr=on{{ref, a, }

Esch-sur-Sûre Esch-sur-Sûre (, ; , ; , ) is a commune and small town in north-western Luxembourg, situated in the canton of Wiltz. At one point it was the second smallest commune by area in Luxembourg (after Remich), until Neunhausen and Heiderscheid were ...

, {{sort, 520, 520 , - !style="text-align:left" , Germany , {{sort, 146, {{convert, 146, km/h, mph, abbr=on

Kabelsketal Kabelsketal (, ) is a municipality in the Saalekreis district, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is situated east of Halle (Saale). It was formed in 2004 out of the villages of Dieskau, Dölbau, Gröbers und Großkugel.{{cite news, title="Friederike" ist durch , url=https://www.n-tv.de/der_tag/Friederike-ist-durch-article20239820.html, access-date=3 February 2018, work=NTV, date=19 January 2018 , {{sort, 126, 126 , {{sort, 144, {{convert, 144, km/h, mph, abbr=on
Beverungen-Drenke , {{sort, 242, 242 , {{sort, 203, {{convert, 203, km/h, mph, abbr=on

Brocken The Brocken, also sometimes referred to as the Blocksberg, is a mountain near Schierke in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt, between the rivers Weser River, Weser and Elbe. The highest peak in the Harz mountain range, and in Northern Germany, ...

, {{sort, 1153, 1153 , - !style="text-align:left" , Switzerland , {{sort, -1, ''no such elevation{{ref, b, }'' , {{sort, -1, ''n.a.'' , {{sort, 96, {{convert, 96, km/h, mph, abbr=on{{ref, a, }

Steckborn Steckborn is a municipality in Frauenfeld District in the canton of Thurgau in Switzerland. It is located on the south-western arm of Lake Constance known in German as the Untersee ("Lower Lake"). History The area around Steckborn was alrea ...

, {{sort, 398, 398 , {{sort, 165, {{convert, 165, km/h, mph, abbr=on
Pilatus , {{sort, 2132, 2132 , - !style="text-align:left" , Austria , {{sort, 69, {{convert, 69, km/h, mph, abbr=on{{ref, a, }

Seibersdorf Seibersdorf is an Austrian market town with 1,283 residents in the District of Baden in Lower Austria. Geography Seibersdorf lies in the industrial belt of Lower Austria. The municipality has an area of 20.2 km2, 9.36 percent of which is for ...

, {{sort, 185, 185 , {{sort, 104, {{convert, 104, mph, abbr=on{{ref, a, }

Linz Airport Linz Airport (, ) is a minor international airport located in Hörsching, near Linz, the third-largest city in Austria. It was also known as the Blue Danube Airport until 2019. History Early years Air traffic used to take place at the ''Südba ...

, {{sort, 313, 313 , {{sort, 148, {{convert, 148, mph, abbr=on{{ref, a, }
Feuerkogel , {{sort, 1618, 1618 , - !style="text-align:left" , Czech Republic , {{sort, 93, {{convert, 93, km/h, mph, abbr=on{{ref, a, }

Doksany Doksany () is a municipality and village in Litoměřice District in the Ústí nad Labem Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 500 inhabitants. It is known for the Premonstratensians, Premonstratensian Doksany Convent. Geography Doksany is l ...

, {{sort, 159, 159 , {{sort, 107, {{convert, 107, km/h, mph, abbr=on{{ref, a, }

Ústí nad Labem Ústí nad Labem (; ) is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 91,000 inhabitants and is the capital of the Ústí nad Labem Region. It is a major industrial centre and, besides being an active river port, is an important railway junction. ...

, {{sort, 379, 379 , {{sort, 173, {{convert, 173, km/h, mph, abbr=on

Sněžka Sněžka () or Śnieżka (, ) is a mountain on the border between the Czech Republic and Poland, the most prominent point of the Silesian Ridge in the Giant Mountains. At , its summit is the highest point in the Czech Republic, in the Lower Siles ...

, {{sort, 1602, 1602 , - !style="text-align:left" , Poland , {{sort, 93, {{convert, 93, km/h, mph, abbr=on{{ref, a, }

Wrocław Wrocław is a city in southwestern Poland, and the capital of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship. It is the largest city and historical capital of the region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the Oder River in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Eu ...

, {{sort, 124, 124 , {{sort, 115, {{convert, 115, km/h, mph, abbr=on

Bielsko-Biała Bielsko-Biała (; ; , ; ) is a city in southern Poland, with a population of approximately 166,765 as of December 2022, making it the List of cities and towns in Poland#Largest cities and towns by population, 22nd largest city in Poland, and an a ...

, {{sort, 365, 365 , {{sort, 126, {{convert, 126, km/h, mph, abbr=on

Kasprowy Wierch Kasprowy Wierch (; Slovak: ''Kasprov vrch''; sometimes in English ''Kasper Peak'') is a peak of a long crest in the Western Tatras, one of Poland's main winter ski areas. Its dominant southern crests mark the border with Slovakia. It is accessi ...

, {{sort, 1987, 1987 , - !style="text-align:left" , Slovakia , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , {{sort, 137, {{convert, 137, km/h, mph, abbr=on{{ref, a, }

Chopok Chopok (2,024 m) is the third highest peak of the Low Tatra range (just after the neighboring Ďumbier and Štiavnica mountains) in central Slovakia. The peak offers a panoramatic view of High Tatra, Liptov and the valley of Hron. There is a ch ...

, {{sort, 2012, 2012 Germany received the worst impacts by the cyclone that crossed the country on a track from

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony is a States of Germany, German state (') in Northern Germany, northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ' of the Germany, Federal Re ...

to Southern

Brandenburg Brandenburg, officially the State of Brandenburg, is a States of Germany, state in northeastern Germany. Brandenburg borders Poland and the states of Berlin, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony. It is the List of Ger ...

on 18 January. The main wind field on the southern side of the storm led to widespread gusts up to {{cvt, 133, km/h, mph over a region ranging from

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia or North-Rhine/Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a States of Germany, state () in Old states of Germany, Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the List of German states by population, most ...

Saxony Saxony, officially the Free State of Saxony, is a landlocked state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and ...

. David featured wind gusts higher than {{cvt, 200, km/h, mph on a few German mountains, reaching their maximum on the

in Saxony-Anhalt ({{cvt, 203, km/h, mph, disp=sqbr). Simultaneously, the northern areas of Germany that were spared by the worst wind received heavy snowfall, especially the northeast.

Deutsche Bahn (, ; abbreviated as DB or DB AG ) is the national railway company of Germany, and a state-owned enterprise under the control of the German government. Headquartered in the Bahntower in Berlin, it is a joint-stock company ( AG). DB was fou ...

, the country's main railroad company, halted most of its railroad transportation services since the ferocious winds and the subsequent windthrow made many railroad tracks impassable. 100,000 power cuts in North Rhine-Westphalia and 140,000 in Eastern Germany are known to have occurred at some moment on 18 January. Similarly to the situation in the Netherlands, several flights were cancelled in Germany and road transportation was limited. The pilots who were arriving in Germany and the Netherlands had to perform

crosswind landing In aviation, a crosswind landing is a landing maneuver in which a significant component of the prevailing wind is perpendicular to the runway center line. Significance Aircraft in flight are subject to the direction of the winds in which the a ...

s in order to land their planes in the dangerous conditions, although luckily no aviation accidents are known to have occurred because of the storm. German emergency services received thousands of calls. Eight direct fatalities and numerous injuries were caused by David in Germany. Two indirect fatalities occurred in a traffic jam that was caused by the cyclone in Saxony. Despite David's compact structure, the southern neighbor countries of Germany (

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

and

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

) were affected by the high winds and intense snowfall of the cyclone as David's outer bands hit the

Alps The Alps () are some of the highest and most extensive mountain ranges in Europe, stretching approximately across eight Alpine countries (from west to east): Monaco, France, Switzerland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria and Slovenia. ...

. Furthermore, the traffic of the Alpine countries was negatively affected by the nearly complete halt of rail and road traffic in Germany. Even Italy, where one man died, felt some effects of the storm. In Poland, the weakening system caused traffic disruptions and some infrastructural damage, causing 50,000 power outages. The Czech Republic was inflicted some damage and power outages, too. Road and railroad traffic in Czech Republic was hampered too. In particular, some train lines that connected the Czech Republic to Germany were halted as Germany was the most affected country. 30,000 power outages were registered in the Czech Republic. As a preliminary total, 15 deaths (13 direct and 2 indirect) and 471,000 power outages are known to have occurred Europe-wide due to the effects of the storm. David/Friederike is estimated to have caused €1bn in damage in Germany alone, while the damage total in whole Europe could be as high as €2.6bn. {{clear

Reactions and naming controversy

Prior to the arrival on 17 January the cyclone received the names David by

and Friederike by the

. In contrast, the

Met Office The Met Office, until November 2000 officially the Meteorological Office, is the United Kingdom's national weather and climate service. It is an executive agency and trading fund of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and ...

did not give the storm a name from its official naming list. They did not expect the storm to affect the British Isles that is intense enough to justify the usage of a storm name. Only a few hours prior to David's impact, cyclone Fionn was dominating the interaction of the two lows, weakening David into a trough, making the struggling David seem relatively harmless. As David restrengthened just before making landfall on the British Isles and inflicting unexpectedly high damage, the Met Office became subject to criticism by the British public and media. Contrastingly, the DWD (German Meteorological Office) took David seriously and classified it a major windstorm (''Orkan'') for its widespread hurricane-force ( Bft. 12) gusts. In Germany, only exceptionally strong storms are given that title. Most storms in Germany are called ''Sturmtief'' (windstorm), a storm category which was assigned to Xavier and Herwart beforehand, two of 2017–18 season's most important storms in Germany. According to the DWD, David was the worst storm to affect central Germany since Kyrill. As a precaution, many schools in Germany remained closed and entering many forests was forbidden on 18 January. {{clear

Notes

#{{note, a Note a: These gust speeds have not been retrieved from official storm summary gust lists, but instead manually selected from source. Higher gusts matching the specific criteria might have occurred since this website features an extensive, but incomplete set of weather stations. The altitudes of the weather stations that measured these wind speeds have been retrieved from the same source. #{{note, b Note b: The lowest altitude in Switzerland is {{cvt, 193, m, ft. Since winds are usually measured {{cvt, 10, m, ft above the surface, no officially valid wind speeds below an altitude of {{cvt, 200, m, ft can be measured in this country. #{{note, c Note c: The {{cvt, 78, km/h, mph gust was registered on 17 January 2018 21:00, when David started to affect Great Britain. Just 13 hours earlier, a {{cvt, 133, km/h, mph gust was registered at the same station, but, since David was racing east at a translational speed of up to {{cvt, 100, km/h, mph, cannot be attributed to David since David was well offshore at 08:00.{{Cite web , date=17 January 2018 , title=18011712_UKMet_Analyse.gif , trans-title=Weather3- current weather maps , url=https://www1.wetter3.de/Archiv/UKMet/18011712_UKMet_Analyse.gif , access-date=17 May 2023 , website=Wetter3 - aktuelle Wetterkarten , language=de Thus, it is probably more precise to attribute the 133 km/h gust to Cyclone Fionn since it dominated the weather in the North Atlantic just before David arrived.

References

{{Reflist {{UK and Ireland windstorm seasons {{European windstorms

David David (; , "beloved one") was a king of ancient Israel and Judah and the third king of the United Monarchy, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament. The Tel Dan stele, an Aramaic-inscribed stone erected by a king of Aram-Dam ...

2018 in Germany January 2018 in the United Kingdom 2018 in Ireland 2018 in France 2018 in the Netherlands 2018 in Belgium 2018 in the Czech Republic 2018 in Poland Blizzards in Europe 2018 natural disasters 2018 disasters in Europe

Meteorological history

Impact

Reactions and naming controversy

See also

Notes

References