Storm Friederike industry loss finalised at $1.9bn by PERILS

The insurance and reinsurance industry loss estimate for extratropical cyclone, or European windstorm, Friederike (also known as David), has been finalised at roughly $1.9 billion (EUR 1.672bn).

European windstorm Friederike struck the northern areas of Europe in January 2018, causing significant property damage as it tracked across countries including the British Isles, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany on 17th and 18th January 2018.

Catastrophe risk data and industry loss estimate provider PERILS gave an initial estimate for the industry loss from windstorm Friederike of EUR 1.465 billion (approximately US $1.8 billion) in late February, 2018, with that figure then rising by 11% to EUR 1.629 billion back in April at the next estimate update, and again by 3% to EUR 1.675 billion at the third estimate.

Now the firm has reduced the industry loss estimate very slightly, based on the latest data from contributing insurers, to EUR 1.672 billion, which is roughly $1.9 billion.

PERILS explained that the majority of the property losses from windstorm Friederike occurred in Germany and the Netherlands and caused the deaths of eight people in Germany, three in the Netherlands and one in Belgium.

Eduard Held, Head of Products at PERILS, commented, “While the market loss from Windstorm Friederike of EUR 1’672m is significant, we estimate that there have been 11 European windstorm events in the past 40 years which would have exceeded this figure had they occurred today. These events include 87J, Daria, Herta, Vivian, Wiebke, Anatol, Lothar, Martin, Jeanett, Kyrill and Klaus. On this basis, we estimate that the Europe-wide market loss level of Friederike would be reached or exceeded on average once every three-to-four years. For Germany and the Netherlands alone, however, the return periods for the respective market losses would be higher.”

PERILS latest estimate aligns with those of other sources of industry loss data, although reinsurance firm Swiss Re said the ultimate loss from the storm to insurers would be $2.1 billion.