Euro windstorm Victoria / Dennis industry loss finalised at EUR 350m

The insurance and reinsurance market loss from European windstorm Victoria, also known as storm Dennis in the UK, which struck in February 2020, has now been finalised at EUR 350 million, by PERILS AG.

That’s slightly higher than the last update to the industry loss estimate back in August, when PERILS said it was EUR 344 million at the time.

European windstorm Victoria (Dennis) struck the British Isles and areas of north-western Europe between the 15th and 17th February 2020, coming just six days after the more significant windstorm Sabine (Ciara, Elsa) which resulted in a much larger loss of close to EUR 1.6 billion.

Impacts from storm Victoria / Dennis across the UK, Germany and Belgium drove the majority of the industry loss with wind gusts recorded at up to 100km/h.

PERILS, the Zurich based aggregator of insurance and reinsurance market loss report data, pegged its initial estimate for the insured property market loss for extratropical cyclone Victoria (Dennis) at EUR 286 million back at the end of March.

That was then lifted to EUR 344 million in August 2020 and has now been finalised at this new figure of EUR 350 million.

Victoria was a particularly long-tracked European windstorm.

PERILS explained, “Victoria was originally identified on 11 February 2020 when it was still located over the US. Travelling across the mid-Atlantic in a north-easterly direction, it underwent a so-called “explosive cyclogenesis” which included a rapid deepening of its central air pressure to 920mB, one of the lowest values measured over the North Atlantic since records began more than 150 years ago.”

Both storms Victoria and Sabine came close to a period of severe flooding in the UK, which PERILS will be releasing an updated industry loss for before the end of this month.