European windstorm re/insurance claims reach 1.9m with €3.85bn industry loss

The European windstorm series that struck in February of 2022 caused an insurance and reinsurance industry loss of €3.85 billion, according to the final estimates released by Zurich-based catastrophe insurance data provider  Perils.

Perils has disclosed its fourth and final loss estimate for the European windstorm series which affected the British Isles and continental Europe from 16 to 21 February 2022. The windstorm series consisted of three storms named Ylenia, Zeynep and Antonia by the Free University of Berlin, and Dudley, Eunice and Franklin by the UK Met Office.

A total of 1.9 million insurance claims were filed, resulting in an industry loss of €3.85 billion, Perils said. The figure compares to Perils’ previous loss estimates of €3.74 billion, €3.61 billion and €3.29 billion released six months, three months and six weeks after the event, respectively.

Based on an actuarial analysis of European windstorm losses since 1979, a loss of this size is reached or exceeded approximately once every eight to nine years, Perils noted.

Most of the losses occurred in Germany, followed by the Benelux states, the UK and France, while minor losses occurred in Austria, Switzerland and Denmark. Poland and the Czech Republic were also affected but are not covered in the Perils loss survey.

The European windstorm series was driven by a strong jet stream which led to a cluster of three low-pressure systems that hit similar areas within a period of less than one week. The lows generated strong winds across the British Isles and Western Europe causing major disruption and widespread but mostly non-structural damage.

“Windstorm clustering such as that observed in the February 2022 windstorm series is not unusual for European extratropical cyclones,” Perils said. “However, allocating the associated losses to the individual low-pressure system can be challenging for insurance companies.

“This is further complicated by the fact that event definitions for reinsurance purposes are not uniform and may include meteorological conditions as well as loss aggregation periods typically ranging from 72 to 168 hours. As a result, Perils has reported the February 2022 European windstorm series as a single insurance event.”

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