Severe thunderstorms caused insured losses worldwide in the amount of 35 billion dollars in the first half of the year. In just six months, the thunderstorm losses were almost twice as high as the annual average for the past ten years. A large part of the losses are due to severe thunderstorms attributed to the USA. Experts from the reinsurer Swiss Re estimate the economic costs at 125 billion US dollars. In the same period of the previous year, it was slightly more at 129 billion.
According to the study, $54 billion of the economic costs were insured, with natural catastrophes alone costing an estimated $50 billion to the balance sheets of insurance companies. This is the second highest value since 2011 and clearly exceeds the ten-year average of $32 billion, Swiss Re said in a statement.
Thunderstorms are a big item in this year’s catastrophe balance sheet. According to the information, almost 70 percent of the insured damage was caused by severe thunderstorms with thunder, lightning, storms, heavy rain and hail. Especially in the USA and there in Texas, these raged particularly hard.
“This makes it clear that secondary natural hazards are causing ever greater damage,” Martin Bertogg, head of the Catastrophe Perils division, is quoted as saying in the communiqué. The drivers of this trend are global warming and the increase in economic value accumulation in urban areas.
Blatant insurance gaps
Secondary natural hazards include floods, hail, forest fires or drought, while hurricanes or earthquakes belong to the first category. The devastating earthquake in Turkey and Syria caused the highest economic loss in the first half of the year at an estimated USD 34 billion, of which only USD 5.3 billion was insured.
Caption: Thunderstorms in the USA in particular – Jeffersonville in the state of Indiana in the picture – are a burden on reinsurers’ balance sheets. Keystone/Archive/CHUCK BRANHAM
Insurance gaps are also an issue in developed countries. This was illustrated by the floods in the north Italian region of Emilia-Romagna in May. According to Swiss Re, the economic damage is around 10 billion dollars, of which only 0.6 billion is expected to be insured.
In the second half of the year, the hurricane season in the USA usually dominates the picture. So far it has been quiet there. However, since the beginning of July, the US, northwest China and southern Europe have been suffering from heat waves, writes Swiss Re. And in southern Europe, severe forest fires raged in the dry climate. It is still too early to estimate the damage.