Changes in storminess and surges in western France during the last century

French meteorological data provide some information on wind direction since 1890. Since 1951, wind speed and direction have been digitised every three hours in many stations. The Brest tide gauge has recorded hourly sea levels since 1860, thus enabling hourly surges to be calculated and studied. This set of data has been organised into a data base and analysed in order to recognize evolution and trends. Strong winds are increasing in frequency in the western part of Brittany and decreasing in Normandy and Pays de Loire. Surges associated with these winds do present a slight decreasing trend. A more precise analysis allows to distinguish between southerly winds, which are slightly decreasing, and strong winds from other directions, which display a more or less important increase in frequency. The analysis shows trends that may be linked to the global circulation pattern, and that result in a new spatial distribution of winds on western France.