Severe thunderstorms and hailstorms are among the most damaging weather hazards in Central Europe. In Switzerland, hail alone causes substantial economic losses each year, affecting agriculture, buildings, and vehicles. As climate change intensifies and increases the frequency of extreme weather, understanding how these hazards evolve and how their impacts propagate across sectors has become a priority. The Seamless coupling of kilometer-resolution weather predictions and climate simulations with hail impact assessments for multiple sectors (scClim) project addresses this challenge by establishing a seamless model chain from thunderstorm simulations to the quantification of hail impacts in Switzerland under current and future climate conditions.

The project is led by scientists from ETH Zurich, the University of Bern, and Agroscope, and it includes partners and their expertise from MeteoSwiss and industry. The project combines three key components: very high-resolution weather and climate modelling, detailed hail-track analysis from radar observations, and the integration of process-based model components to provide probabilistic quantification of hail risks and sector-specific impacts on agriculture, buildings, and cars. The project collaborates closely with national agencies, industry partners, and insurance stakeholders to co-develop tools that translate scientific insights into actionable information. These include a prototype that estimates potential damage from both observed and forecast storms. Such tools support early warning systems, risk management strategies, and long-term adaptation planning in sectors particularly exposed to severe convective storms.

The project demonstrates how advances in high-resolution climate and weather modeling can be linked to risk assessment and decision support. By coupling atmospheric simulations with impact modeling, the project enables more accurate estimates of hail risk across different sectors and time horizons, from short-term warnings to long-term climate adaptation planning. The project provides a robust evidence base for assessing climate risks and evaluating adaptation options. The integration of hazard modeling, exposure data, and sector-specific damage functions allows quantification of potential economic losses and informs sectoral adaptation strategies. As a result, the project contributes to societal resilience against hail risk by translating climate science into actionable economic information for governments, insurers, and infrastructure planners.

More information about the project is available here.