Hail Conference at KIT: Researchers from all over the world meet

Hailstorms cause considerable damage again and again. The 4th European Hail Workshop was held at KIT from March 5 to 7, 2024, to inform and discuss the current state of hail research and to identify new possible solutions.

Despite considerable research progress in recent years, knowledge of the causes of hailstorms, regional hail probabilities, associated risks, and long-term variations and trends due to climate change is still limited. In addition, the predictability of hail in numerical weather prediction models is still very low. The main reasons for this are the insufficient observation of hail, the interaction of relevant processes on different spatial and temporal scales, and the complex cloud microphysics. To make progress in these areas, collaboration between scientists from different fields and disciplines is essential. For this reason, IMKTRO, together with the Mobiliar Lab for Natural Risks and the Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research at the University of Bern, MeteoSwiss and the German Weather Service (DWD), organized the 4th European Hail Workshop, which for the first time was held at KIT in a hybrid format.

The three-day event brought together more than 180 scientists and experts from 23 countries from the fields of atmospheric research, weather services, insurance, industry and agriculture. The workshop focused on the topics „Hail damage and damage prevention“, „Hail climatology, risk and loss“, „Convection and hail in a changing climate“, „Hail detection and forecasting“, „Microphysics and dynamics of hailstorms“ as well as the two new topics “Hail research and AI/ML” und “Field campaigns”. One of the highlights of the workshop were the two panel discussions: “The truth aloft: Collecting new data through field campaigns. A community exchange on ongoing and planned field projects” and “Teaching and research in meteorology in the time of AI”. The workshop as a whole showed that the greatest and perhaps most important advances for hail research in the coming years are expected to come from these two relatively new areas.

Fig. 1: A total of 182 participants from 23 countries and all continents attended the conference, with approximately 130 attending in person and the remainder using the hybrid conference.

Fig. 2: The breaks were used for lively discussions.

Link to the workshop website incl. program & abstract booklet: https://ehw2024.imk-tro.kit.edu

Working Group: Atmospheric Risks

Authors: Susanna Mohr & Michael Kunz (April 2024)