tornado

Insurance and reinsurance industry losses from the severe convective weather and tornado outbreak in the U.S. southeast over the last few days are expected to reach well into the hundreds of millions of dollars, possibly higher, according to Impact Forecasting.

Meteorologists have long studied the unpredictability and devastation caused by tornado outbreaks in the U.S. in an effort to gain a greater understanding into the predictability, severity and potential location of events.

A new, U.S. severe thunderstorm (STS) scenario model has been launched by Aon Benfield’s catastrophe model development team, Impact Forecasting, which will assist sponsors and investors in the catastrophe bond space to better understand U.S. thunderstorm risks.

The recent outbreaks of severe weather in the U.S., which has featured severe thunderstorms, tornadoes, heavy snow, ice and flooding, will result in economic losses of over $1 billion and take the economic loss total from severe thunderstorms to above average for 2015.

The 2nd Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals has thrown out an appeal related to the contested payout of the Mariah Re Ltd. catastrophe bond, affirming that American Family Mutual Insurance does not have to pay any of the $100m back to reinsurance vehicle Mariah Re.

The insurance industry loss toll from convective storms, so severe thunderstorms, tornadoes and hail, and the flooding they have caused in recent weeks has jumped again to reach $4 billion, according to Aon Benfield’s Impact Forecasting unit.

Insurance industry losses from severe thunderstorms, tornadoes and flooding in the U.S. during May is expected to surpass $1 billion, according to Aon Benfield’s catastrophe modelling unit, Impact Forecasting.

Insurance industry losses from U.S. severe thunderstorms, so including hail and tornado events, are estimated to have reached $3.1 billion by mid-May and are expected to spike sharply higher, given the widespread impacts of extreme weather in recent days.

Insured losses from outbreaks of severe thunderstorms in the U.S. in April are expected to reach $2 billion, according to an estimate from reinsurance broker Aon Benfield’s risk modelling unit Impact Forecasting.

This year has seen a dearth of reported tornado events across the United States. Currently the run-rate for tornado reports is significantly below average and in fact less than half the 25th percentile and not far off the minimum ever seen by this time in March.