December 2013 saw one of the worst flooding events I’ve ever experienced in Denmark. These winter storms are common enough, but rarely as destructive as Storm Xaver/Xavier was. In Denmark, we have our own storm naming system, and so the name Bodil was assigned in place of Xaver – the latter in use in English-speaking countries. In Sweden, they went with Sven.

What transpired was a severe Atlantic storm that unfortunately took the lives of a handful of people across northern Europe.

The image above shows dense fall streaks of rain, sleet and snow (perhaps even hail) descending in great volumes from stormy clouds off the coast of Copenhagen. The swirly patterns of these streaks reveal strong winds. The windmills in front are nearly a hundred metre in height individually^[2], but are dwarfed significantly by the cloud formations a couple of kilometres behind.

References:

1. Kettle J. K., 2020. Storm Xaver over Europe in December 2013: Overview of energy impacts and North Sea events. ADGEO, 54, p. 137–147. doi: 10.5194/adgeo-54-137-2020

2. https://www.sologvindinfo.dk/spatialmap