Extratropical cyclone Herwart industry loss finalised at EUR 264m

The insurance and reinsurance industry loss estimate caused by October 2017’s European extratropical cyclone Herwart has been finalised at EUR 264 million by catastrophe event claims data aggregator PERILS AG.

The figure is a roughly 4% increase than the last estimate of industry losses for the insurance and reinsurance industry, which had been pegged at EUR 255 million since January of this year.

European windstorm Herwart struck Austria and Germany on 29th October 2017, causing significant damage, also affecting Denmark, although to a much lesser degree.

PERILS explained that Herwart was a rapidly moving system that brought extreme wind conditions, but lasting for only a few hours. The northern and eastern regions of Germany were impacted by Herwart during the early hours of the day, after which the storm struck the eastern half of Austria. The highest wind gusts recorded were 176 km/h in Germany (Fichtelberg, Saxony), and 180 km/h in Austria (Feuerkogel Mountain, Upper Austria).

The impact to the insurance and perhaps reinsurance industry was wider than this though, as storm Herwart also caused damage in Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

However, losses from those countries are not included in PERILS industry loss estimates as it does not cover the entire European continent.

Hence it’s important to also consider other estimates that were delivered for this storm, such as the one from actuarial firm Meyerthole Siems Kohlruss (MSK) which estimated that the loss to German insurance interests would be EUR 250 million. As well as, Aon’s catastrophe risk modeling arm Impact Forecasting put the industry impact at EUR 300 million (approx US $350 million).