© Das Fest | Steffen Eirich
Weather and climate define the environmental frame in which festivals take place – and both are changing in ways that directly influence the festival season.
Traditional expectations of “typical summer weather” are no longer reliable. Weeks of stable sunshine can be interrupted by sudden downpours; long dry periods can turn into heavy, concentrated rainfall within hours; and warm evenings may just as easily become nights of unexpected cold or high winds. These shifts do not only create inconvenience – they change the physical environment in which visitors move, rest, queue, camp and celebrate. This is the reason why we have created this Weather Toolbox.
A truly weather-ready festival means thinking of everyone – providing clear, accessible information, planning for comfort and safety, and creating conditions that make every person on site feel protected, included, and welcome, no matter what the sky brings.
The Weather Toolbox brings together practical and research-based resources to give background information on weather & climate to help you design safer and more weather-resilient festivals and outdoor events.
It is aimed at organizers, safety professionals, production teams – everyone involved in planning, building, and operating open-air events. And of course we do not forget about the audience. The PDF version of the Weather Toolbox summarizes the most important topics and includes links to this website, where you can find more detailed texts on everything mentioned in the PDF.
The Toolbox’s Structure
Extreme weather can affect events in many different ways often at the same time. To make it easier to find the right tools and information, this toolbox is divided into practical chapters that address specific aspects of weather preparedness and response.
The first chapter addresses weather & climate in general, whereas the following chapters cover different aspects of planning, risk assessment, communication and implementation on site.
Also, there’s a look into the media and some case studies to show that this is not about theory only but about real life.
Additional resources help to educate yourself and others even better.
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Everyone knows what a “storm” is – but do we really? Do we really speak of the same phenomenom when we say, “there is a storm coming”? – Clear terminology does not only help to improve the understanding of the topic but also is – like clear thresholds – an important part of each risk assessment and each decision matrix.
The report is an official WMO report that combines predictions from several designated global climate prediction centres to assess likely global temperature and related climate conditions for 2025–2029. It is part of WMO’s regular update…
The report describes how changing precipitation patterns, more frequent and intense floods, droughts and deteriorating water quality affect human health in Europe (e.g. injuries, infectious diseases, chemical exposure, mental health). It assesses how well Europe…
Weather hazard awareness is a foundational competence for anyone responsible for the planning, approval, and operation of outdoor festivals. Unlike many other risks, weather hazards are not hypothetical, adversarial, or exceptional – they are guaranteed…
Weather hazard awareness for temperature-related phenomena starts with understanding how heat and cold episodes form, how they impact people and infrastructure, and why they are changing in Europe. For crowd and event managers, these processes…
Weather hazard awareness for precipitation-related phenomena means understanding how different types of rain, snow and ice form, how quickly they can intensify, and what they do to people, infrastructure and event operations. For crowd and…
Weather-related soil, surface and water processes can rapidly turn an otherwise safe event site into a high-risk environment for crowds, infrastructure and operations. Understanding how ground saturation, mud, flash flooding and river flooding behave is…
Weather hazard awareness for solar radiation starts with understanding how UV intensity, heat and glare interact with crowds, infrastructure and operations at outdoor events. For crowd managers, the UV Index is a practical trigger for…
Weather hazard awareness for events must go beyond “rain or shine” thinking and focus on how multiple, interacting weather and environmental factors affect crowd safety, infrastructure, and decision‑making. Special weather issues such as compound storms,…
Weather-related risk assessment and planning are central to the safe operation of outdoor festivals. Unlike permanent venues, festivals are temporary, spatially dynamic systems characterised by limited structural redundancy, high crowd densities, compressed timelines, and significant…
Cascading effects turn a “simple” weather problem into a complex systems crisis, where one impact triggers another and overall risk grows non‑linearly. For weather risk assessment in events and crowd management, treating hazards as isolated…
Risk assessments for events must always be individual, site-specific, and phase-specific. Weather hazards such as thunderstorms do not pose a generic risk; their actual impact depends on local topography, site layout, structures, audience composition, operational…
Risk assessments for events must always be individual, site-specific, and phase-specific. Weather hazards such as thunderstorms do not pose a generic risk; their actual impact depends on local topography, site layout, structures, audience composition, operational…
Risk assessments must always be individual, site-specific, and phase-specific. High winds do not create the same risk everywhere: exposure depends on local topography (wind channels, ridgelines, open fields), the density and type of temporary structures,…
Risk assessments must always be individual, site-specific, and phase-specific. Heat risk depends on microclimate (sun exposure, shade, wind), ground and surface materials, availability of water and cooling, crowd density and behaviour, audience vulnerability, staffing levels,…
Risk assessments must always be individual, site-specific, and phase-specific. Cold and snow risks vary significantly with local microclimate (wind exposure, elevation), ground and surface types, infrastructure (heating, shelter, power resilience), audience profile, and the operational…
Risk assessments must always be individual, site-specific, and phase-specific. Fog and low visibility are highly dependent on local microclimate (topography, proximity to water, vegetation), lighting design, surface contrast, traffic interfaces, and operational phase. The same…
For outdoor festivals, monitoring and early warning are the mechanisms that transform hazardous weather from an uncontrolled external threat into a manageable operational challenge. While risk assessments and contingency plans define what could happen, monitoring…
Thunderstorms, flash floods, strong winds, extreme temperatures, and high UV exposure can rapidly transform stable situations into acute emergencies, with the difference in outcomes often coming down to proactive weather monitoring and having reliable alert…
A combined weather hazard dashboard is an integrated, decision-support interface that aggregates, contextualizes, and visualizes multiple weather-related hazards within a single, coherent operational view. Its primary function is not merely to display meteorological data, but…
The homepage severeweather.wmo.int hosts the Severe Weather Information Centre (SWIC) 3.0, a platform operated under the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). WMO is the United Nations’ specialized agency for meteorology, climate, and hydrology that coordinates global…
Decision making and communication are the decisive control layers of weather-related risk management at outdoor festivals. While hazard awareness, monitoring, and planning define what could happen, decision making and communication determine what actually happens in…
This text is part of the Weather Preparedness & Resilience Toolbox developed by the YOUROPE Event Safety (YES) Group within YOUROPE’s 3F project (Future-Fit Festivals). It is aimed at everyone involved in planning, building, and operating open-air…
Training and learning for weather- and crowd-related safety are mandatory requirements in outdoor festival contexts. In temporary, high-density environments that rely on rapidly assembled, often changing teams, structured competence building is an important mechanism that…
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212420925004522?via%3Dihub
https://wmo.int/publication-series/early-warnings-all-focus-hazard-monitoring-and-forecasting
https://webstore.ansi.org/standards/esta/ansies12021
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1329878X231184913
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S3050456224000063
https://extranet.puq.ca/media/produits/documents/3358_9782760547575.pdf
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