Iselin Baldersheim in Bjørnafjorden lives in a newly built house. It is just over a year since they moved in, and a short time ago the house next door was destroyed by wind. – I think that the quality of these prefab houses that have been put up in a couple of weeks is poorer, says Baldersheim. A trampoline came flying through the air – large glass windows in the serviced apartment can be very vulnerable to such floating objects. Iselin says the home is practical now because they have children and are close to school and activities. Iselin Baldersheim lives in a functional house with large windows in Bjørnafjorden. – Practical right now, but I want an old-fashioned house in the future, she says. Photo: John Inge Johansen / news – I think older houses are better than today’s, I see the houses of my in-laws and the family in the north – they have been there for a long time and there has never been any major damage or big things that have happened to them . she says. And scientists support her observation, while at the same time warning of what may come: – In the future, there is a risk of more damage after storms due to climate change combined with changed patterns of where people settle. That’s what Øyvind Breivik, researcher at the Meteorological Institute, tells news. Together with the Bjerknes Center at the University of Bergen, the Meteorological Institute has researched how climate change will affect future storms. And the answer is that they are getting stronger, according to the Stormrisk project. The strongest gusts will become stronger, Brevik reckons is likely in the future. Photo: John Inge Johansen – The strongest storms will be 1-2 meters per second stronger in the future, compared to today, says Breivik. He says that although 1-2 meters per second does not sound like a big change, it could lead to significantly greater damage. – It is not a linear relationship. It is like that when the wind increases, the damage will increase more. The remains of the roof were strewn on Os in Bjørnafjorden after the storm on Saturday. Photo: NTB Roof peeled off People in Bjørnafjorden experienced a strong storm and a local tornado on Saturday. One house had its roof peeled off and several houses were damaged. After the roof disappeared, it rained straight into apartments in the building. The damaged houses were box-shaped and relatively new. Breivik explains why such houses easily fall victim to the wind. He compares traditional and new houses to an aerodynamic sports car and a trailer. Large areas, covered veranda and large window. Today’s building practices are not necessarily weather-friendly, says Professor Breivik. Photo: John Inge Johansen / news – If you want to drive fast, you buy an aerodynamic sports car that is slanted and nice. If you’re going to drive something big, you might be driving around in a trailer with a big front. But no one expects the two to compete with each other in speed, he says. The new box-shaped houses can therefore be compared to a trailer. It is not favorable when the winds get stronger and stronger. – When you have very strong winds and a box-shaped house, the roof is not blown off, it is sucked off. It is a negative pressure that is created when the wind is forced over the roof. If this house had a long and sloping roof, the wind would have swept across in a completely different way, he says. Øyvind Breivik has looked at the changes up to 2085, but says that we will notice the stronger storms long before that. Photo: John Inge Johansen Have looked at insurance payments Damages after extreme storms make up by far the largest part of insurance payments after natural damage in Norway. From 1980 to 2017, wind damage accounted for 56 of the total payments, a recent report shows. By looking at the payouts, the researchers have looked at where people actually live and which wind matters. – Wind only causes damage where we have values. You do not want to use the wind at Gaustatoppen to calculate the wind in Tinn municipality. Therefore, we calculate the wind for populated areas. Once that has been done, we can compare the compensation claim against the wind in the town where the damage occurred, says Breivik. Breivik says that what he calls the “everyday wind” may become a little weaker in the future. Nevertheless, houses will be more exposed. – It is not the average wind that blows the roof off a house. It’s the wind you experience in the strongest storm that comes through, he says. The Gjerdehuset at Steinshamn, Harøy. An example of old building practice. House from the 18th century with a long roof side to the southwest. Photo: Øyvind Breivik Old building customs Although the researcher says that it is not the Meteorological Institute’s task to say where people should live, he has clear opinions about how we should build in the future. – Now we tend to build with large windows. We build because we like to look good, so we like to build higher in the terrain. Before, we liked to build in a sheltered cove. Now we might build a little higher on the ground, so that we have a view, Breivik sees. And the consequences of building like that are clear, he believes. – If you are going to have a view and large windows, and in addition a flat roof, so that the house looks like a box, then you must also expect that there will be more damage to the house than if you had built with small windows and a long, slack taxi side inside a bay. Unfortunately, that’s how it is. Proximity to school and activities are keywords for the current living situation for Iselin’s family. Photo: John Inge Johansen Breivik says that we may have to change the way we build houses. Old building practices can be brought back to protect us from stronger storms. – In Western Norway, it blows strongly and often from the southwest. There they often built a long roof side that sloped to the southwest And then you had a warm and nice back side to the east. Then the wind could sweep up this long, slack roof, and the house would stand, he says. Iselin Baldersheim in Bjørnafjorden has exactly the same attitude to which house she would most like to live in: – The only reason we live in a box is proximity. It’s right for us right now, but we’ll probably get an old house eventually, she concludes. Published 01.09.2024, at 12.02
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Modern houses extra vulnerable to future strong storms – news Vestland
