Weather Damage Reporting

Severe weather events cause extensive damage and disruption to buildings and infrastructure. We are keen to learn from such events but the data is limited and we seek your help to provide more evidence. A formal record of damage, categorised and analysed, will help to formulate strategies for improvement or changes to future policies including Building Regulations. It is recognised that climate change is having effects which may mean more weather events that result in damage. The study is not concerned with the reasons for climate change, but only whether the consequences might lead to changes in construction practices. Your assistance will help to shape the future for more sustainable buildings and lessons will be learned to benefit our communities. The Department has therefore established a programme for collecting descriptions of damage from Local Authorities and others. You are asked to help by reporting events where there has been damage to buildings or infrastructure due to a severe weather event, or an unusual natural event. This will be through an existing system, CROSS, which is also used to report structural failures and some Local Authorities contribute to, or are familiar with, their newsletters.