weather

Atrium, a specialty insurer at the Lloyd’s insurance and reinsurance marketplace, has entered into the weather and climate insurance market with the appointment of a new specialist team that’s set to be led by weather insurance veteran Dr Ed Byrns.

According to Munich Re, the world’s largest reinsurer, global crop insurance claims in 2012 reached a massive $23 billion. Munich Re attributes as much as $15 billion of these losses in the U.S. due to the severe drought in 2012. Crop losses are growing with increasing insurance penetration and in years to come these figures […]

The August Global Catastrophe Recap, from Aon Benfield’s catastrophe modelling arm Impact Forecasting, shows that there is considerable disparity between insurance penetration levels around the globe. The low amount of insured losses in some catastrophe events around the world demonstrates where growth should be expected and where there is an opportunity for insurers and reinsurers […]

A report from rating agency Standard & Poor’s estimates that the U.S. crop insurance and reinsurance sector will see losses of over $5 billion from the severe drought which has been affecting much of the country in 2012. S&P says that however large the loss becomes they believe it will impact crop insurers earnings but […]

Just two or three weeks ago many insurance publications were suggesting that crop insurance losses resulting from the severe drought in the U.S. would not be large enough to hit the global reinsurance market. We’ve been cautious on this point, as we could see the increasing severity of the drought (the worst in more than […]

The July Global Catastrophe Recap from reinsurance broker Aon Benfield’s catastrophe modelling arm Impact Forecasting shows that the insurance industry will face agriculture losses from weather catastrophes around the world in July. From severe flooding in China, to the extreme drought in the U.S., the weather in July will result in losses to agricultural and […]

Reinsurance broker Aon Benfield has released its June Global Catastrophe Recap report today and the data shows that severe weather in the U.S. last month is likely to result in around $2 billion of insurance losses. That’s just at the latest estimates and there are a number of events which are likely to see increases […]

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has published its latest update on the El Niño & La Niña weather phenomena in the Pacific ocean which have wide ranging effects on the global climate and weather patterns. The most likely scenarios are for the continuation of near neutral conditions or the formation of a weak La Niña […]

Many weather and peril re/insurance pricing decisions have tended to be made based on analysis of historical data rather than on forecasts. Historical data has always been seen as the best way to predict weather trends and assess riskiness of a specific peril in a specific geographic location. Forecasts were seen as too inaccurate and […]

Here’s some interesting weekend reading for extreme weather buffs courtesy of Dr. Jeff Masters from the Weather Underground. Dr. Masters has put together a review of the severe weather events which affected the world during 2010 and also discusses 2011 events such as the severe weather recently experienced in the U.S.