Weather-related fire brigade operations

Background information

The weather-related operations of the volunteer fire service are both an indirect indicator of the number and increase in extreme weather events and an indication of the potential impact and potential problems and damage caused by such events. For example, volunteers clear roads of fallen trees or repair damage caused by strong gusts of wind (e.g. dangerous roof tiles or damaged chimneys).

Description of the results

The data in the figure show a clear trend towards an increase in weather-related incidents. While less than 1000 weather-related incidents led to voluntary fire-fighting up to 2000, the average number of such incidents has more than doubled since then. The year 2019 is a particularly strong outlier, when extreme precipitation in the Pustertal/Val Pusteria, the Schlern/Sciliar area, the Dolomites and the Ultental/Val d‘Ultimo, as well as in the whole of South Tyrol, led to snow drifts, power cuts and road closures, resulting in more than 6,000 fire-fighting operations. In 2024, a total of 2013 operations were carried out by the volunteer fire brigade in South Tyrol due to weather conditions.

Global climate change has recently significantly increased the likelihood of several extreme weather and climate events in Europe (2). In the future, many European regions are expected to experience more climate-related extreme events such as heat waves, heavy rainfall, droughts, high wind speeds and storm surges. Increased weather-related incidents involving volunteer fire brigades are an indirect indication that the risk of natural hazards has increased. Damage will affect settlements, transport infrastructure, agriculture and forestry.

Method

From 1980 to 2004, data on storm operations were recorded in all sections of the volunteer fire brigades in South Tyrol. Since 2005, there has been a computer program for recording operations, which was initially used by only 158 of the total of 306 sections, whereas in 2020 there were 296 sections. The operations for the years 2005 to 2020 have been extrapolated to 100% of the sections, which may slightly distort the results.

Sectors affected

• Natural hazard

• Settlements

• Transport infrastructure

• Agriculture

• Forestry

• Water management

• Tourism

Comparison to Germany

In Germany, there has been no significant upward trend in the number of hours spent on weather-related operations since 2000. However, in the years of the century floods (2002, 2006, 2007, 2011, 2013 and 2021) a particularly high number of hours were spent on operations such as these (3).

Related Indicators

References

1.     Bundesamt für Umwelt (Switzerland): Indikator Naturgefahren – Schäden durch Hochwasser, Murgänge, Rutschungen und Sturzprozesse https://www.bafu.admin.ch/bafu/de/home/themen/thema-naturgefahren/naturgefahren--daten--indikatoren-und-karten/naturgefahren--indikatoren/indikator-naturgefahren.pt.html/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuaW5kaWthdG9yZW4uYWRtaW4uY2gvUHVibG/ljL0FlbURldGFpbD9pbmQ9R0UwMTcmbG5nPWRlJlN1Ymo9Tg%3d%3d.html 

2.     European Environment Agency, 2017: Climate change, impacts and vulnerability in Europe 2016. An indicator-based report. No 1/2017 ISSN 1977-8449 

3.    Umweltbundesamt Deutschland, 2019: Monitoringbericht zur deutschen Anpassungsstrategie an den Klimawandel (DAS)

Contact

Eurac Research: Marc Zebisch, Center for Climate Change and Transformation

Data provided by the State Association of Volunteer Fire Departments