Analysis of temporal properties of extremes of wind measurements from 132 stations over Switzerland

Abstract

In this study, the 10-min average wind speed series recorded at 132 stations distributed rather homogeneously over the territory of Switzerland were investigated, focusing on the challenging problem of the analysis and modelling of wind extreme events. Wind extremes are defined as a sequence of consecutive values above a percentile-based threshold of wind speed distribution. Considering temporal point process of wind extremes marked by their duration, the main findings of this study are that: 1) the average probability density function of the extreme duration does not depend on the percentile-based threshold and decreases with the increase of the extreme duration; 2) wind extremes are globally time-clustered, although they tend to behave as a Poisson process with the increase of the minimum extreme duration; 3) locally, wind extremes tend to be clustered for any percentile-based threshold for stations located above about 2000 m a.s.l.; 4) by using the Allan factor, it was revealed that wind extremes tend to be clustered even at lower timescales, especially for the higher stations.