Multi-billion-dollar insurance bill for weather disasters smashes European record

Analysts at re/insurance broker  Aon estimate that the industry faces a "multi-billion-dollar" damage bill for claims emerging from major severe weather outbreaks across Central & Western Europe.

Europe experienced the "costliest period of severe weather" in its history between June 17 and 30, and the fifth costliest period globally, according to the latest edition of Aon’s monthly Global Catastrophe Recap report.

Severe weather in Europe in June caused insured losses that are expected to exceed $3.4 billion, Aon said. Preliminary estimates of combined losses by the national insurance sectors came in at $4.5 billion, surpassing the previous European record of $4.3 billion set by storm Andreas in 2013.

Insurers in Austria, Switzerland and the Czech Republic recorded their costliest stretches of severe weather on record, while Germany experienced the second costliest.

Aon’s report, which evaluates the impact of natural disaster events worldwide during June 2021, noted that large hail had caused significant damage in central Switzerland and Austria, while many parts of Germany experienced flooding.

Meanwhile, the US Pacific Northwest and Canada experienced a prolonged period of historic heat in June, resulting in more than 630 fatalities, of which more than 500 were in Canada.  Numerous daily, monthly, and all-time maximum temperature records were set – including many records that were broken in consecutive days.

Michal Lörinc, senior catastrophe analyst for Aon’s impact forecasting team, said: “While the US generates most headlines given the frequency and aggregated high financial costs associated with severe thunderstorm outbreaks, other parts of the world are also prone to such events. The extended stretch of severe weather in the second half of June across Western and Central Europe featured very large hail, flash floods, and one of the most intense tornadoes recorded in the recent European record. Multi-billion-dollar insured thunderstorm outbreaks are not regularly common in Europe, but they can and do happen.”

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