H1 global insured nat cat losses hits top-four all-time ranking: Aon

Global insured losses rose to $53 billion in the first half of 2023, the fourth highest year on record, as severe convective storms drove losses in the US, global insurance brokerage  Aon has said.

The preliminary H1 ally for natural disaster was 46% above the 21st-century average, and 25% above the decadal mean. Only 2011, 2021 and 2022 have run higher.

While the Turkey earthquake tops the list of individual events at $5.6 billion in insured losses, US convective storms, for which coverage rates are high, fill out the rest of the global top ten.

“Relentless severe convective storm activity across the United States throughout the first half of 2023 reaffirmed the position of this ‘secondary’ peril as the dominant global driver of insured losses,” Aon authors wrote.

Those severe convective storms contributed the bulk of the $40 billion in US H1 insured losses, the third highest H1 tally on record after 2011 and 2021.

“Considering the preliminary estimates and potential loss development in the coming weeks and months, the H1 of 2023 will exceed the current record for the period set in 2011,” authors said. Q1 had been the costliest on record, over the prior record by some 50%.

New Zealand drew attention for back-to-back major events, the January flooding in Auckland followed by Cyclone Gabrielle in February, combining for $2.2 billion insured losses. Those losses take fifth and sixth place on the New Zealand all-time ranking, well below key earthquake events.

In Europe, only a $9.6 billion bill on Italian flooding and $5.5 billion on Spanish drought raised eyebrows.

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