Bermuda is at risk of a dangerous side swipe from Hurricane Igor. Igor, the ninth named storm of the Atlantic season, is currently an extremely powerful Category 4 hurricane with sustained winds of 155mph. It’s tracking towards Bermuda at the moment and is forecast to pass just to the west of the island this weekend which could still bring high losses to the island.
On its forecast path Bermuda will feel hurricane force winds from Igor. Igor is expected to have weakened to a Category 2 or 3 storm by the time it reaches Bermuda but it could still hold 110mph winds which will cause widespread damage on Bermuda if it received a direct hit. We hope the forecast track remains to the left of Bermuda.
Hurricane Igor tracking map
So Igor is very much a storm to watch for our industry and not just because of potential losses, also because so many of our colleagues and partners are based on the island of Bermuda.
In other storm news, Hurricane Julia is heading west across the Atlantic but is forecast to recurve to the north and then east and so be no threat to the U.S. or Caribbean.
Tropical storm Karl has formed in the far western Caribbean and is forecast to cross the Yucatan Peninsula before reemerging into the Gulf of Mexico. It will then regain some power and could even attain hurricane status before heading ashore in Mexico. As with every storm in that region, losses can be inflated by the severe rainfall and landslides they suffer, so it’s worth keeping an eye on Karl.
Karl tracking map
The season is beginning to live up to its promise of being extremely active, with 11 named storms now having formed. It’s still early in the season with more than two months to go so we could potentially see records broken for the number of named storms. Despite its extreme level mof activity losses from this hurricane season are benign to date, demonstrating that an active season is not what really needs to be feared by the insurance industry. What threatens our markets are direct landfalling high category storms and so far we luckily haven’t experienced any. We hope that continues.
Keep up to date with our tropical storm season page.
View all of our Artemis Live video interviews and subscribe to our podcast.
All of our Artemis Live insurance-linked securities (ILS), catastrophe bonds and reinsurance video content and video interviews can be accessed online.
Our Artemis Live podcast can be subscribed to using the typical podcast services providers, including Apple, Google, Spotify and more.
