PERILS AG, a Zurich, Switzerland headquartered provider of industry-wide European catastrophe exposure, industry loss data and indices, has released its final insurance industry loss estimate for European windstorm Xaver with a total of €763m.
European windstorm Xaver hit Western and North Europe on the 5th and 6th December 2013, with the majority of the insured losses caused by the storm occurring in Denmark, Germany, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands and the UK. Windstorm Xaver was also known as Sinterklaasstorm in the Netherlands, Bodil in Denmark and Sven in Sweden.
PERILS first loss estimate for Xaver, released in January 2014, was €680m. That was subsequently increased in March 2014 to €727m, then again to €759m.
Now, one year after the original event, in lines with reporting procedures, PERILS has released the final loss estimate for windstorm Xaver, putting the total insurance industry loss from the storm at €763m, which at today’s exchange rate is approximately $945m or just over £603m.
The final loss estimate for European windstorm Xaver is again available at a higher level of granularity, with losses per CRESTA zone (two-digit postcode level) and per property sub-lines of business, Residential, Commercial, Industrial and Agricultural.
The map below shows how the insurance industry loss from European windstorm Xaver was distributed.

European windstorm Xaver map showing market loss by Cresta Zone - Source: PERILS AG
After a very busy winter in 2013/14, there has yet to be a European windstorm event that has required assessment or reporting from PERILS AG this season. You can see just how busy last winter was from the table of storm names below.
Update on all European catastrophe events investigated by PERILS AG from the winter 2013/14 windstorm season:
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Event name | Event start date | Peril | Status | Estimate | |
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Ev | 14 Mar 2014 | Windstorm | Non-qualifying | |
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Ulla | 14 Feb 2014 | Windstorm | Non-qualifying | |
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Tini | 12 Feb 2014 | Windstorm | Qualifying | €281m |
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UK Floods | Various – Jan/Feb 2014 | Flood | Non-qualifying | |
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Ruth | 08 Feb 2014 | Windstorm | Non-qualifying | |
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Qumaira | 06 Feb 2014 | Windstorm | Non-qualifying | |
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Petra | 04 Feb 2014 | Windstorm | Non-qualifying | |
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Nadja | 31 Jan 2014 | Windstorm | Non-qualifying | |
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Christina | 05 Jan 2014 | Windstorm | Non-qualifying | |
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Anne | 02 Jan 2014 | Windstorm | Non-qualifying | |
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Gerhard | 01 Jan 2014 | Windstorm | Non-qualifying | |
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Felix | 30 Dec 2013 | Windstorm | Non-qualifying | |
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Erich | 26 Dec 2013 | Windstorm | Non-qualifying | |
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Dirk | 23 Dec 2013 | Windstorm | Qualifying | €370 million |
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Bernd | 18 Dec 2013 | Windstorm | Non-qualifying | |
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Xaver | 05 Dec 2013 | Windstorm | Qualifying | €763 million |
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Christian | 27 Oct 2013 | Windstorm | Qualifying | €1.144 billion |