Department of Geography, Masaryk University - Czech Republic
Based on documentary sources - mostly historical written reports and daily newspapers – the frequency of strong winds connected with convective phenomena in the Czech Lands occurring during the last millenium is presented.
At first the character of documentary evidence on severe meteorological phenomena is discussed. Spatial and temporal resolutions of documentary sources comparing to instrumental measurements are analyzed. Records on severe storms are classified from point of view of its strength and spatial patterns. Maps of spatial distribution of individual events are presented. Special attention is devoted to the character of damage, which is the main source of information on meteorological causes of storms in this kind of data. Gradual changes of damage character connected with the vulnerability of the human society are mentioned. Several cases of historical storms and tornadoes are described in detail.